How Much Is Redemption
by ChestOfStories
Summary: After Kai crashes Jo's wedding and turns himself into a vampire-witch heretic, he and Bonnie are due for a final stand. Their agendas, however, clash in unexpected ways. / AU season 6 finale AU season 7, given how long it grows as it unravels. The story came alive and took over, galloping beyond our control. Enjoy the ride! - (written by @KaiJest and @NaturesParamour)
1. Chapter 1

Kai thought his hand would shake when he had Bonnie caught in his magical grip and her boots tore off the floor, but it didn't. With the blurry veil of looming death finally lifted off his eyes, he saw hers flooded with fear and realization of defeat. He held her there, like a damn Darth Vader, and wanted to relish in her terror that was his reward. He really wanted to – and for a moment there, he thought he did. Kai liked to have an upper hand after what felt like an eternity of misery and losses. He liked being the reason her heart thrashed – and felt the momentary urge to laugh at his former stupidity: God, was he stupid or what when he thought this frantic pulse might ever overcome her for another reason when she looked at him. There were not enough apologies in the world to make anyone see what they didn't want to see. His problem was, however, that there was just one person in the whole world he wanted to see it. And she not just chose ignorance – she stabbed him with the same weapon he gave her himself. Ironic, indeed. Also, too damn painful. So painful it felt impossible that there could be so much hurt available to harass you constantly. He desperately wished to turn it off, to go back and rewind it, but never could.

Not until now.

Now, Kai recalled, he truly could turn it all off. Take advantage of the vampire perk. It was exactly what he would do, after this was over. One last piece was missing, and there's no cake without an icing.

He gnashed his teeth, absorbing the horror her face was oozing. Nor did she hide the disdain and … what was it? He could bet his damned life, it was hatred there, too.

 _Good. Let her hate me. Let her choke on it if that's what she wants._

A fleeting grimace of wrath gripping his face, he flicked his wrist, sending Bonnie Bennett's fragile human body into the wall. He felt himself flinch as her spine and ribs cracked before she hit the floor and lay there, motionless and breathing in short, sporadic gasps like a rabbit about to die from fright. Kai smelled her blood – the little of it that oozed from her ear or the corner of her mouth – and as peckish as he felt by then, hunger was the last thing to hold his attention. Something was trembling inside of him when he made himself sit on the wooden stage step. He let out an unsteady breath, locked his hands together in front of him to ground himself and focus. There was blood everywhere, but hers kept pulling his strings. Kai kept wondering how he knew it right away, and hated that new vampire nose.

He started to understand he hated a whole lot about this day.

It had to become the feast of newly won freedom. It was going there up until now – until that little crack of bone that sent his mind reeling. He realized he was indeed trembling, tried to make himself stop, could not. Not while she kept drawing air in those tiny gasps like a small wounded animal. A hot flash of anger almost made him tell her – again – it was all her fault, her doing, but then he didn't. No point when he had told her just that on the tape. Kai heaved a sigh and rubbed his neck. At least something in him wasn't aching, anymore.

Damon finally showed up. Took him long enough – Kai was beginning to worry the vampire would come to his dead friend – but he made it in time. Broken glass crunched under Damon's shoes as he approached her, scowling as if a pit bull was gnawing at his left bullock. He observed her, squatted down. "Bonnie… Hey, Bonnie?"

She gave a strangled sob. "D—Damon…"

"So, Damon," Kai began, and Damon looked up at him as though just now noticing, "here's the thing. Your choice just got much easier to make – you're welcome, by the way. We all know how much of a wreck you are without your 'damn girlfriend' as you put it earlier, so hereby you get a chance to reunite with her… in, say, a few minutes. Bon's not doing so hot. Of course, you can throw it off by a hundred years – witches are good at longevity. Or you could just let the injury take its toll, no blood on your hands. Kiss and hug and make up and walk away and then you get what you want. How about that? Happily ever after was tonight's motto – or was supposed to be, after all, right?" Kai gave him a mock hearty smile.

"Da—Damon," Bonnie croaked. "P—Please…"

Damon's face was a kaleidoscope of scattered emotions shifting into each other: hurt, anger, grief, fear, sympathy – they all danced around in a frenzy of doubt.

It struck Kai amazed how much doubt. And it struck him dumbfounded there was any at all.

A faint grimace of misery creased Damon's features. "I'm so sorry, Bon," he whispered.

Bonnie wheezed; her pulse jumped. Kai saw her head jerk in Damon's direction as if she didn't trust her eyes and ears.

Kai knew he no longer wanted to trust his.

Damon leaned in to place a tender kiss on her forehead, then pried his hand from hers clutching at it as though it were a life belt. Flabbergasted, Kai watched him slowly walk away from her, like an ashamed dog with its tale tucked between its legs.

With a sudden impulse of indignation, Kai bolted up and threw his hand forth. That crack caressed his hearing and touched his mouth with a satisfied smile. He scoffed a laugh as he stood over Bonnie, overseeing Damon's body a dozen feet away. "Did you see that, Bon? That was it. He just left you. Wow, man. I mean, one would think four months is a long enough time to get to know someone, but look at that! And not only I didn't know anything – you were as clueless." He looked down at her, gauging her reaction and drinking it in, all of it, tear by tear that rolled from the corners of her eyes and gathered in her ears and hair. She wasn't looking at him – her eyes were locked on some space within her broken heart. Kai couldn't hear it break, but he saw the shards.

And he felt the pain.

"Fate's sense of humor is a twisted thing, hey, Bon. Or call it karma or whatever else – the point stays the same." He seated himself on the floor next to her. "You know, when I sat back there with those heretics sucking my life out, one painful drop after another, I dreamt of this moment. It was a bit different every time, but frankly, I couldn't imagine it quite like it's panned out. This is really more than I could ask for – it shows you exactly what the one person you trusted most stands for, and how much you're worth to those you consider your family. Oh, I'm so experienced in that kind of hurt – and I really, really wanna feel glee now that you've discovered that pain and joined my club… but somehow it sickens me. It sickens me to see you betrayed me for a bogus. It sickens me to see you've thrown me back in the pit of hell when I only just climbed out – for THIS."

Her eyes finally flicked to his and locked, welled up, spilling. And there was hate, burning brighter than before, flanked by hurt and terror.

And that hate did Kai in. He felt his heart crunch up with all the ire, exasperation, disappointment and despair finally reaching the rim and pouring out bubbling. He stared down at her, almost breathless. "You'll never get it, don't you? You'll never actually grasp it, no matter what I do." Bitterness filled him to the top of his ears; it burned him like acidic rainstorm raging inside. "It's always gonna be me to pin the blame on, huh. He walked away, and it's still my fault? Right? Of course. Would it still be my fault if it were you the sleeping one and neither of them ever remembered about you while living out their happily-ever-after? Of course… And you know why? Because it's always easier to justify those you love. That's why they screw you over – because you let 'em." Unconsciously, he wiped his cheek with the back of his hand and found there was a tear on its way down. Another one was about to spill before he got it, too. He didn't want to look at Bonnie. He didn't think he could stand to read how much she hated him.

She wheezed – probably another sob.

He let out an abrupt exhale, bit his wrist and pressed it to her mouth. He expected her to fight it, but she didn't. She latched on and drank while he regarded Damon's corpse in the hallway. Kai took his hand away, got up and strolled to the stage. The dark pool of blood was drying. He remembered Alaric's gaze – a void filled with nothing but raw suffering. Kai felt like a sick man between the delusions. Her was vaguely aware he had to be feeling something – and that there was too much to register without overheating the core.

Behind him, Bonnie was scrambling to her feet.

He suddenly knew she would run to check on Damon, and couldn't conceive of witnessing it. There was a limit to what he could take at this point. "Go away," he said without turning, his eyes glued to the pool of Jo's blood. "Get away from me."


	2. Chapter 2

Bonnie snapped a leg off one of the damaged wedding chairs, being cautious to do so, not wanting to alert Kai of her objective while he busied himself with his werewolf bite. She stalked towards him, slowly approaching from behind, brandishing the unpolished stake with the purpose of driving into his back. All she needed was one passable arc of the wrist and her walking-talking boogey monster riddled nightmare would be over. Along with every shortness of breath, the increasing anxiety of what she knew—and now witnessed—he could and would do – all of it. That would be done, this chapter of her life would be over and the ugliness that consumed her for the better part of two and a half years would disintegrate. Just like that and just like he would. It was that simple. She had to believe it.

She _did_ believe it.

"You know what's funny? I didn't even know werewolves were real until I got bit by one," he piped up suddenly. "The thing is, Bon, the only way a guy turns into a wolf is if it's magic, right, so technically, their venom's magic, too."

Bonnie tightened her sweaty grip on the piece of wood the closer she got, blood pumping in her ears, practically drowning out what he was saying, kicking both anticipation and adrenaline into high gear.

"So I just went ahead and siphoned it up."

 _Wait. What did he say?_

She blinked, mulling over what he'd chattered about the last few seconds, her mind racing almost as fast as her heart, an instinctive and warning sweat breaking out across her skin as he stood. 'No,' she thought with uncontrolled alarm, her eyes widening as he turned to face her.

"No, no, no, no," she muttered over and over, reading his immediate intent, the strength and determination seeping from her body almost as swiftly as it reentered his own. This was all wrong! This wasn't possible!

She gasped, contradicting her thoughts as an invisible hand closed around her, immobilizing, the piece of wood slipping from her grasp as she rose to the air, guided like a puppet being pulled from its stage. She wanted to cry, to scream and rage as he stared at her, his face amass of indecipherable emotion, no longer looking as though he was taking pleasure in what he was doing and every bit as though he planned to skin her alive.

That look frightened, haunted her dreams, and fuelled what she always knew: that he was a monster.

He appeared to read her thoughts, his face devoid of its usual mirth and momentarily contorted with hatred as he sent her flying across the spacious room. Air rushed from Bonnie's lungs as she bounced off the wall and crashed to the hardwood floor, hand-delivered to the layer of dead bodies already scattered around the shaken barn. She briefly blacked out, a sob tearing from her throat in panic as she hurdled back to reality, pain radiating throughout her body—agony she'd never experienced before—tears streaming down the sides of her face.

'I can't move,' she told herself in a voiceless panic, unable to flex her hands, to move her legs, and more importantly, she had to fight for her breath, her increasing heartrate doing nothing to support her troubles. She didn't want to go like this, she didn't want to feel her life slipping from her hands and know that she wouldn't get the chance to experience having a family of her own, a career or even something as indefinite as an actual future. She wanted those things, she wanted to make good of the vows she made to herself, and she no longer wanted to be alone.

Damon appeared as he always did, like they'd had a tiff moments ago and he realized what an ass he'd been. He'd fix this, he'd fix her and the pain would be gone.

"D—Damon…" she sobbed, his name barely struggling from her lips, her body prickling with overpowering relief that fleetingly overrode the blinding discomfort.

"Bonnie… Hey, Bonnie?" he said in a bemused voice, stooping beside her, taking a moment to catalogue her injuries, the look in his eyes further frightening her.

"So, Damon," Kai interjected from somewhere, making himself known once more, "here's the thing. Your choice just got much easier to make – you're welcome, by the way. We all know how much of a wreck you are without your 'damn girlfriend' as you put it earlier, so hereby you get a chance to reunite with her… in, say, a few minutes."

'No!' Bonnie wanted to scream, picking up on what he was trying to do, tears leaking from her eyes, losing themselves in her hair, another sob ripping from her throat in a weak attempt to stop him.

"Bon's not doing so hot," Kai remarked as he went on. "Of course, you can throw it off by a hundred years – witches are good at longevity. Or you could just let the injury take its toll, no blood on your hands. Kiss and hug and make up and walk away and then you get what you want. How about that? Happily ever after was tonight's motto – or was supposed to be, after all, right?"

"Da—Damon," Bonnie struggled out. "P—Please…" 'I don't want to die', she craved so desperately to shout at him, unable of find the voice to do so, her breath tittering into her lungs haphazardly, nearly choking her.

Various emotions played over Damon's face, agonizing seconds ticking by, time feeling as though it had stopped altogether, brutally transporting Bonnie back to the moment she'd shared with Matt in the Salvatores' Parlor.

"You have to get out town now, Bon," Matt stated as soon as he'd viewed Kai's message.

"I'm not letting Kai win," she replied.

"Bon, Elena's the only thing that Damon Salvatore cares about," Matt beseeched, trying to make her see reason, his voice and concerned face fading away to make room for Damon's contemplative one.

In the past, Bonnie might have followed Matt's advice, but things were different now, she and Damon were friends - close friends. What they'd experienced in 1994 and the value of their friendship wasn't something either of them could just brush off.

"I'm so sorry, Bon," he whispered in an apologetic tone, shocking her, stealing of the sparse breath from her damaged lungs, her head jerking toward him as though he'd slapped her. Blurred in her watery vision, Damon leaned down to press a misleadingly tender kiss to her forehead, her strength temporarily returning as he pried himself free, her nails clawing at the top of his hand, desperate to hold onto him for as long as possible. Which was no more than a second. Her hand shot back to her chest and was cradled against her aching heart, her face turned away from him, the wall unseen as she silently wept.

"Did you see that, Bon? That was it. He just left you. Wow, man. I mean, one would think four months is a long enough time to get to know someone, but look at that! And not only I didn't know anything – you were as clueless."

For those few seconds she'd forgotten Kai was there, his every word like a swift hand purposely rubbing salt into the wound. Again, he was right and everything she thought she knew and believed was wrong. So very wrong.

"Fate's sense of humor is a twisted thing, hey, Bon. Or call it karma or whatever else – the point stays the same."

Bonnie paid no mind as she heard him take a seat beside her, probably so he could have a front row seat and enjoy the remainder of her painful show.

"You know, when I sat back there with those heretics sucking my life out, one painful drop after another, I dreamt of this moment. It was a bit different every time, but frankly, I couldn't imagine it quite like it's panned out. This is really more than I could ask for – it shows you exactly what the one person you trusted most stands for, and how much you're worth to those you consider your family. Oh, I'm so experienced in that kind of hurt – and I really, really wanna feel glee now that you've discovered that pain and joined my club… but somehow it sickens me. It sickens me to see you betrayed me for a bogus. It sickens me to see you've thrown me back in the pit of hell when I only just climbed out – for THIS."

Her eyes welled up, each word striking a cord—and it was meant to—making her hate him all the more, making her hate herself for ever believing that her friends would see some kind of value in her. That maybe—this one time—she wouldn't have to face the big bad wolf and her impending doom alone. She believed she had that in Damon, she thought she had that in Elena and yet—as fate always had it—here she was, staring up at Kai who'd both emotionally and physically ripped her to shreds in a span of minutes, exposing her ever insecurity like he knew exactly which buttons to push.

God, she hated him.

"You'll never get it, don't you?" he asked. "You'll never actually grasp it, no matter what I do."

What the hell did that mean?

"It's always gonna be me to pin the blame, huh. He walked away, and it's still my fault? Right? Of course. Would it still be my fault if it were you the sleeping one and neither of them ever remembered about you while living out their happily-ever-after? Of course… And you know why? Because it's always easier to justify those you love. That's why they screw you over – because you let 'em."

Bonnie continued staring up at him, trying to make sense of what he was trying to tell her, confused by his apparent need to make her understand. Was he crying? She could hardly tell through her own waterworks.

She rasped, cutting short the thought, the pressure upon her chest increasing painfully. She blinked when he unexpectedly pressed his wrist to her parted lips, and took his offering with both hands, her eyes closing to savor the taste, her tongue caressing the wound as though my life depended on it. And it did, as she wanted nothing more than to live and hardly stopped to think of what it meant or what new game he'd cooked up in his head.

When he pulled away, got up and walked off from her, Bonnie stayed where she was for a couple of seconds, feeling the searing agony fade away and her breathing return to normal.

She raised herself up on her elbows, peering over her shoulder to where Kai was studying something on the floor, and then sat up, pausing for half a second when she caught sight of Damon sprawled upon the floor. She pushed off, shaking off the phantom numbness in her legs that threatened to send her tumbling again, and stumbled over to her former friend's body. She inspected Damon from head to toe with her eyes to make sure Kai hadn't killed him – not permanently. The still raw feeling of betrayal cutting through her like a hot knife in butter.

"Go away," Kai said, jarring her back to the present once again reclaiming her attention. "Get away from me."

Something in the air shifted, taking with it the encompassing fear that struck her senseless earlier. Bonnie didn't even know what it was, but somehow it felt as if their quandaries reached their climax.

"I'm not going to say I'm sorry for leaving you in 1903," she began, staring at his back, feeling the need to say something, wanting him to understand that what transpired wasn't something they could simply take back. "I'm not. And I'm not going to apologize for stabbing you in the back or even attempting to kill you," she said frankly. For whatever reason, she needed him to know that. He'd hurt her, scarred her in a way that no one else ever had, a physical reminder neatly tucked just under her left breast. "Not after you came back and did the very thing I knew you would. The very thing I _feared_ you would." She shuddered, throwing a glance at a woman grotesquely draped over a chair; her back clearly had been broken in the middle of his vivacious revenge. "These people didn't deserve this, Kai," she stated, her voice breaking slightly as she walked up behind him, taking note of the dark bloodstain he was staring at. "Your sister didn't deserve this. Jo was a good woman, marrying an equally decent man whose life you ripped apart without even thinking." She felt anger seep into her tone. "I even know that this it isn't entirely your fault. That I—" she swallowed thickly, feeling tears gather behind her eyes again, hating that in spite of her better intentions, and of healing herself, she'd contributed to destroying a family that hadn't had a chance to bloom. "—I'm mostly to blame. I drove you to this, obviously," she continued with a bitter laugh, his speech having made her see that. "I… whatever you suffered by the hands of those… things, those people…" she deliberated, trying to shake off the image he'd placed in her head, "that's all I can ask forgiveness for." Whether he got up now, snapped her neck or laughed in her face, she'd said what she'd said and that was it – what more could she do?


	3. Chapter 3

"I'm not going to say I'm sorry for leaving you in nineteen-o-three," she said, making Kai shudder.

Her voice reverberated within his body, physically aching and ripping at the strings of his weakening self-control.

"I'm not. And I'm not going to apologize for stabbing you in the back or even attempting to kill you," she continued, clueless to how close to another bout of torture she was teetering. "Not after you came back and did the very thing I knew you would. The very thing I _feared_ you would. These people didn't deserve this, Kai. Your sister didn't deserve this. Jo was a good woman, marrying an equally decent man whose life you ripped apart without even thinking."

Another shiver traveled through him instead of a nervous laugh he thought would slip out. Without thinking… He had a long fucking time to think, that was for sure. If anything, he'd thought about it thoroughly.

"I even know that this it isn't entirely your fault. That I—" he heard her throat click as she swallowed, "I'm mostly to blame. I drove you to this, obviously. I… whatever you suffered by the hands of those… things, those people… That's all I can ask forgiveness for."

"Forgiveness," Kai repeated dumbly. The pool of blood started morphing into a black patch of starless space, a crack in reality, making him dizzy. He was distantly aware he was losing it a little along the stitches. The smell of blood was suffocating, and her voice still rang inside his skull, words bouncing off the walls like dry peas. "Forgiveness," he repeated in a soundless breath, probing himself for reaction. He felt like someone threw a thick tarp over his raging emotions and they kind of lost their direction under it, groping their way around, not knowing where to step. And then laughter started in his chest, like a buzzing cell phone gradually gaining volume, as he turned to look her in the eye.

Bonnie studied him, unmistakably seeing him stiffen, half-expecting Kai to lash out at her, and grimaced when instead he started laughing like a manic. She'd heard it enough to know the difference and tonight, that lethal look in his eyes, the one he currently zeroed in on her, held none of its former frivolity. No, this was someone else, something broken, and something she now knew she had a part in creating.

He must have looked like a loony, he reckoned, laughing like a cartoon villain amidst the chaos he's caused, but none of the glee was real or heart-felt. At this moment, Kai wasn't sure where his heart was and if it was. "What the fuck is that forgiveness and why would you want it? Look," he spread his arms at the wrecked room.

She looked, agreeing with him internally, knowing there was no way to make up for murdering these people. How could there be?

"Is there a thing like forgiveness in the world like that? I dared to think so – and then you know what happened. So tell me, Bonnie," all gaiety drained from his face as he fixed her with a sharp, heavy stare, stepping away from the stage towards her, "why would I forgive you for dismissing my efforts as if I were shit stuck to your dress shoe? Why would I forgive you for handing a dozen chances per day to Damon and denying me a smidgen of that share?

Bonnie flinched slightly, recalling how earnest he seemed in his attempts to make nice with her, how afraid she'd been, how incapable of trusting that Kai could be anything other than the monster that haunted her nightmares.

"And why would I leave my damned family to live happily ever after when they never stopped plotting to lock me away to rot? WHY? They could've just killed me, for crying out loud, if I were that much of an ugly duckling to them, but they PUT ME IN HELL! What I did to them here is mercy compared to what they dealt me."

"You're right," she responded, taking an automatic step back as his voice rose, swallowing away the lump in her throat, forcing herself to forget what he'd done to her minutes ago and stick to her prior resolve.

Kai could smell it she was placating him, and for a second, thought he would launch himself at her to see how much of her blood he could drain in one gulp.

"They alienated and pushed you away for something that was beyond your control. It's harsh, it's lonely and it's hard. But do you honestly believe you're the only person in the world to deal with inattentive assholes for parents? That you're alone in feeling neglected and unloved? Say what you will, Kai. Pass the buck. Blame me. Blame your father for putting you in some hellish prison world. God forbid you can even blame your brother Timmy," she studied him, hoping—for some unknown reason—to see a flicker of what had been there before she dropped him in nineteen-o-three, "the one that struggled as you drowned him in your pool, you remember him, don't you?"

He did. It was something from another galaxy. Something he must have seen in some stupid thriller.

"I'm sure whatever he did to you was deserved and far less brutal than having to endure eighteen years of solitude. At least you have a life—something you can try to mend and heal from, what does he have? What does your sister, her twins and would-be husband have?" She knew she was playing with fire, that if he wanted to, he could snap her neck or worse, but she didn't care. "You think this is mercy?" she said, spreading her arms in the same way he had before. "It's simply proving what they always thought you were. What I believed you were."

In the dark abyss of his being, Kai sensed the dying out ember of anger brighten to life in the flare of helpless despair. He was never getting out of this vicious circle. Trying it before indeed was stupid.

"When does it stop?" she demanded. "With me? I clearly wasn't mature enough to embrace that concept. With you? Where? Did I truly break you that much?"

Kai stared at her, nonplussed, for a long moment of blankness. Then it hit him like a bat upside the head, pushing the baffled disbelief up like a giant air bubble rising from under water to the surface to release poisonous gas. A brief, uncontrolled laugh fell from his mouth, and he drew a deep breath, squelching the urge to resort to violence and just take it all out on her instead of having to cough up explanations that, obviously, were as useful as a condom with its end cut off. His lips drew back in a little sneer of a man who's found out that what he thought was a nightmare happens to be real. Then a glint of dour knowing flickered in his eye as he regarded her, pondered on pouring it out, decided to go with a point-blank. "Did it truly break you that much when he walked away?"

An incredulous and incomprehensibly bitter laugh automatically spilled from Bonnie's lips, her eyes unconsciously darting over her shoulder to where Damon still lay. Kai damned well knew that it hurt as he'd seen their friendship unfold as if it were his very own entertainment. Damon was her confidant and her best friend. She loved him. Just thinking about it now was like enduring that back-breaking pain all over again, gripping and twisting her heart, literally squeezing until she was left with nothing but agonizing frailty. She stared at Kai, studying his features, eyeing the significant smile that twisted his lips, like he'd shared something she'd missed by a mile.

And then, like a Mack truck, those cutesy little looks he'd given her, the weirdly endearing commentary about her palms and his insistence to 'go if you go' seemed to make sense.

It was like Damon said: "You're just not used to guys hitting on you."

He regarded her expression that was a quickly changing slideshow: hurt, bemusement, disbelief, ire, inquiry, shreds of feelings that had no time to grow roots and swept past and twirled around. She studied him, like someone would study their apartment upon discovering it has been redecorated while they've been away for lunch.

"You hardly know me," she began, suddenly finding the entire situation surreal, not wanting to voice aloud what she was thinking in fear of giving life to something she wasn't sure she was ready to hear the answer to. "I mean, I hardly know you. And what I do know is downright terrifying." In an odd panic, she took another glance around, suddenly saddened by what he was trying to imply. "Or it was. Is." She exhaled as if to focus. "I get it," she said, having assured herself that she'd come to the conclusion, that the comparison was easily explained, and that he was simply projecting. "I felt it too when you left me there. That place, the loneliness, it swallows you whole and breaks away pieces of who you are, who you used to be. It's only natural that you'd feel a connection to the people who'd shared that experience with you." And why was she even talking about this? None of this changed anything, nothing about his confession would bring these people back or revive Jo. What's done is done.

Head tipped to one side, Kai watched her trying her damned best to play a shrink, to humor him. To lie to him. Again.

"So… what now? Where are we supposed to go from here? Am I supposed to feel guilty?" She quirked up a brow, curious, genuinely wondering what he expected from her. "Because I do. And not because I didn't feel it back." She needed him to recognize that, needed him to know that although there was an attraction of sorts in the beginning, she never viewed him the same. Not after his happy family-hunting stories came to light. "Or that I didn't see it and couldn't fathom something like that, but because all of this could have been prevented somehow. That is the point of this, right? That why you linked me to Elena, why you can rally your victory in driving a wedge between Damon and I? You healed me so that he can despise me, so that I can hate him for not choosing me as much as you do me. Right?" She took a step forward, no longer feeling quite as scared as she was before, suddenly feeling as if she'd found all the answers and his entire game plan had been revealed.

With a feeble wonder, Kai discovered he could still be hurt more. Something cringed inside his chest, then a silent pulse went through his being, like a sonic wave after a nuclear explosion, deafening his feelings. And the only solid feeling he was left with was exhaustion. An exhaustion of a man who's been there from the day one of the earth. Too long to be. It started to seem to him he had accidentally switched his humanity off, but then a thin thread of hurt glistened in the distance, lacing through the fibers of his soul. He drew in a long breath, let it out, looked at her listlessly. "I linked you to Elena because of Damon, yes." He shrugged, a tiny fleeting smile with no joy in it creasing his mouth as he did. "Maybe, it was to make you both pay. Or maybe I gave you both a chance each. For you to see how he truly felt for you in return for what you obviously felt for him against all odds that were Elena and his inhuman temper that drove him to be the monster you only see in me."

Damon and what Bonnie might be feeling were the least of her concerns at this very moment in time. Even if she knew Kai was right. She did love Damon. How and to what extent? She wasn't sure, yet. She mentally shrugged off trying to decipher the standing of their relationship—still too hurt, still to numb—and what it never would be. And there it was again, the revealing repetition that she saw him as the enemy – what she was gradually starting to believe was the actual reason he was so hurt. Clearly recalling that during their not-so-horrible pre-peace thanksgiving dinner that his father referred to him as an abomination and treated him as such for years. He'd looked hurt sharing that piece of information, much like he was now, briefly surpassing his deceptive twenty something looks in essence. It made Bonnie wonder if that was why he chose to go this far, and if he was merely giving her what she'd asked for and believed she needed. A monster.

"And for Damon to pull his head out of his ass and notice the treasure at his feet he never noticed while staring anywhere but – and that I could only do by taking away his main fixation that was Elena."

Bonnie stared, uncertain of how to handle the backwards way in which he confessed to wanting to see her happy. It was a sacrifice no one else had ever made for her—and guiltily, as much as it hurt knowing her best friend's life was erased from existence for the next fifty or sixty years—another part of her was overwhelmed.

His face distorted momentarily with a scornful wince as her last argument refreshed itself in his mind. Ire – that had been slowly boiling under the thick crust like lava – now started bubbling towards the surface, sizzling as it mixed with hurt. Kai locked his eyes on hers in a penetrating stare. "No, Bonnie, I didn't heal you so he would despise you – I don't give a rat's ass about what he feels for you or Elena or anyone else. I healed you so you didn't die." He backed away from her in a tardy stagger, like a drunkard trying to get out of the closing pub, overwhelmed with equally strong urges to tuck into her neck and merely ghost away from here, away from her. He felt the veins of wrath and hunger swell under his eyes; the sharp tips of his fangs pricked his lower lip, gums itching savagely. "Get the fuck away from me before I take it back."


	4. Chapter 4

"No," Bonnie responded stubbornly, ignoring his notice, remembering what he'd been searching for when she walked in. "You're hungry and newly turned vampires typically struggle with controlling their bloodlust." She squatted, picking up a piece of glass from one of the broken lamps, inhaling slightly to work up a little courage, and stood again. She'd never been the type for having vampires feed on her—and was the last to volunteer—but somehow, where Kai was concerned, it seemed fitting as she'd accidentally slotted him into a similarly brutal situation. Also she wasn't thrilled at the prospect of him running off to contribute to his overloaded body count. She wanted no one else to get hurt tonight.

Like a man in a dream, Kai watched her pick up a shard of glass from the debris on the floor. He could see the struggle on her face, all plain and vivid – imagining the pain and coaxing herself to do this. It split his attitude in two: the anticipation of her scent hitting him with new force made his mouth water but it also made him nauseous. What was it, the last test? To contribute to the monster image? Or she actually had a plan to end him by luring into a trap she was sure he wouldn't escape?

"If you're going to be feeding from anyone," Bonnie said resolutely, running the piece of glass across the smooth untouched flesh between neck and shoulder, "it's going to be me." She observed him gape at her, looking shaken to the core by the blood and, at the same, time like a lethal animal fighting the urge to pounce its prey.

His breath catching, Kai couldn't resist looking at the gash, at the blood welling up and trickling teasingly over her collarbone and down her cleavage, soaking the blouse. The itching in his gums became unbearable, his lips pulling back in a half snarl of hunger and dismay. The room around him swayed as if in a slow dance while he found himself transfixed. Her pulse invaded his head, beat in his temples, her blood flushed in his ears, calling out to him, pulling – as though she had a leash around his neck and tugged at it. A cramp gripped his solar plexus, making him wince, and actually jerking him awake from the trance. He staggered back, tearing his eyes from the wound to glare at her. "What the hell do you want from me?" he screamed, fury sizzling in his veins like ignited gunpowder. "You want me to kill you? Or you want another proof of what a rabid beast I am?"

'Neither', she opened her mouth to say, but within an instant, he was on her, and her back hit the wall as Kai pinned her to it, his hand wrapped around her throat. Her hands automatically clutched on his wrist, fingers digging. Her eyes were wide with surprise and fright. Her nerves dispersed temporarily, and fear yet again wormed its way into her belly like an unwelcome acquaintance.

Hunger wrenched Kai's innards, but he paid it no mind. "I'm not your typical vampire, Bonbon," he uttered in a deceptively soothing tone, their faces so close to each other their breaths mingled. "I'm nothing typical, if you think about it. But you can still get what you want. You wanna die?" He gave a small, mad-hatter chuckle. "Need I remind you what that would mean with my blood in your system? Ah, Bon. You might make such a hot vampire… Oh, and what if that was my plan all along…"

Terror rushed in on Bonnie like tempered water, threatening to drown her, drawing a muffled sob from her lips, a sound she hardly recognized.

Kai donned a mock amiable expression, taking in how fear broke the barriers and whooshed into her, making her pulse race and her pupils dilate. "Because what would be the worst thing to happen to a witch if not losing her powers in favor of becoming a supernatural parasite… right?"

"If you were that hard up for my blood you'd have tasted it by now," Bonnie responded before she could think to tapper down the anxiety and anger vying through her, her eyes meeting his resentfully. "You're trying to scare me." She removed the bloodied hand she'd used to cut herself, hoping to prove a point as she brought it against his cheek, cupping it with deceptive tenderness befitting of a lover.

Kai felt a thrill run through him at her touch, and at the same time, his wrath that had been boiling and steaming started to grow cold, allowing calculation. He searched her face and read pretense in big, bold letters. And hated himself for yearning she meant it.

"You're trying to push me away so you don't rip my throat. I may not know you as well as you know me. But I do know one thing… and that is that you're a remarkable liar," she stated, surprised her voice wasn't shaking and that she sounded far calmer than she felt on the inside. "I fell for it once," she removed the restraining hand from his wrist, allowing him the chance to snap her neck if he wanted, instead taking a hold of his suit's jacket in attempt to draw him closer. "I'm not falling for it again."

Kai looked at her with a surprised adoration, a subtle smile playing over his mouth. "Oh, look at all that open-hearted trust! I'm awestruck here, Bons. Except…" He slowly leaned in to her ear – the aroma of her blood almost unbearably tempting and eliciting another bout of hunger to bite him on the inside – and whispered, "you're a little too late to grant it." As slowly, he pulled away to his previous position to read her face hovering so close to his. There was some unspoken conversation flowing between them like a current. And he sensed her fear swell a little more. "Had you gifted me with that trust when I needed it so damn much – it'd all be different. But now, Bon – now…" He trailed off as though there was suddenly something important to contemplate. "You know, I'd think I'd be exploding by now with all the frustration and hatred – oh, you really made me mad with hate and rage… I wasn't sure which it was most. But now… it's like you reached out and switched it off in me. There's… nothing." He gave a short amazed laugh and looked at her as if dumbstruck. "I think you finally finished him – that Kai who nearly died on your birthday while trying to help you, the Kai I became before you dumped me in that hellhole with Lily's heretics. And that means, little Bonster, you're in real trouble." He was smiling again, whereas she looked more worried by the second. It was good. The balm he sought to ease his soreness. "I can turn you any time – unless you end me first, of course – I've never dismissed how tough you are." He laughed softly. "I always believed in you, Bon, unlike you in me. Anywho… I think there is a sharper edge to vengeance when I can just let you live and continue to kill in your name." He looked at her ingratiatingly, assuming the same kind of tone to accompany it. "Every person I feed on from here on will die because of your choice to deny me the chance I asked for when I did. And there's no lie in it, either: I truly wouldn't be here right now the way I am if not for the choices and decisions you made. I could even do better and bind each of my victims to you and you would feel every death, up close and personal. Oh no, not physical pain – I believe you've had enough of that to last you for eternity. But we both know physical pain is not the worst kind." He unwrapped his fingers from her neck and took his hand away, holding her eyes with his and smiling a little.

A groan reached them and a few glass shards shifted against the dusty wooden boards. Damon started to come to his senses.

Bonnie's head snapped to the sound, and when she looked back, Kai wasn't there, anymore. Only a faint gust of wind kissed her face in the wake of his departure. /

Kai stood at the red Jeep, peeking into the trunk through the window that needed washing for a week or two. Jo's face seemed so beautiful and peaceful through the blue of the gauze veil Alaric covered her with. Like the Sleeping Beauty. Only her sleep was eternal and would certainly begin to ruin her beauty in a few days. A small pang, like a drowning swimmer too weak to fight the current any longer, made itself known with a last splash in Kai's chest, then gave up and went down under.

There was a grunt; a heartbeat picked up a notch.

Kai walked along the side of the Jeep and squatted beside Alaric's sprawled form. His useless handgun lay a couple of feet away, glistening in the electric decorative lights, as if taunting. He wasn't fully awake yet, and Kai didn't need him to be. He leaned over his never-to-be brother-in-law. "God, you're a bit slow today, buddy. I didn't even hit you that hard… But whatever. We might still have a score to settle there, Ric. When you're ready, you know where I'll be. I believe you'll find me. Find me, Ric. Jo's waiting for you. Don't make her wait too long." He got up and ghosted away into the night that grew deafeningly quiet.


	5. Chapter 5

"Oh, look at all that open-hearted trust! I'm awestruck here, Bons. Except…" Kai leaned in, Bonnie's hand falling away from his face and between their bodies; she stiffened as his breath played against her earlobe.

Bonnie sensed—before he even spoke—that her gentler tactic failed to hit its mark.

"You're a little too late to grant it."

She refused to wholly give into the fear and sorrow progressively bubbling to the surface. Going from feeling full-fledged loathing to unspeakable regret and wishing badly she hadn't followed through with the spur of the moment revenge Damon presented to her a couple of weeks ago. Bonnie knew he'd been manipulating her, saying what she needed to hear to get what he wanted—same as she'd ultimately done to Kai—but at the time she'd been too consumed with her fears.

None of which healed or faded even after she abandoned him in nineteen-o-three; in fact, it had only gotten worse.

"Had you gifted me with that trust when I needed it so damn much – it'd all be different. But now, Bon – now…" Kai said, trailing off to some extent, a look of contemplation creasing his brow. "You know, I'd think I'd be exploding by now with all the frustration and hatred – oh, you really made me mad with hate and rage… I wasn't sure which it was most. But now… it's like you reached out and switched it off in me. There's… nothing."

For a second Bonnie was concerned he'd turned off his humanity and that any minute now that incredulous look in his eye would turn deadly. She'd witnessed it once tonight.

He laughed. "I think you finally finished him – that Kai who nearly died on your birthday while trying to help you, the Kai I became before you dumped me in that hellhole with Lily's heretics. And that means, little Bonster, you're in real trouble."

Damon had filled her in on the short point version of what had happened during their mock birthday party. Kai showed up uninvited with newfound feelings of guilt, they manipulated him into helping with the device, Liv murderously intervened, and things got messy and ultimately Jeremy was the one who'd saved Bonnie. Damon hadn't spared much of the small details and she hadn't asked.

What more was there to know? She no longer felt confident about her former assessment.

"I can turn you any time – unless you end me first, of course – I've never dismissed how tough you are."

Why the games? Why not do it already if that's what he wanted?

"I always believed in you, Bon, unlike you in me. Anywho… I think there is a sharper edge to vengeance when I can just let you live and continue to kill in your name. Every person I feed on from here on will die because of your choice to deny me the chance I asked for when I did. And there's no lie in it, either: I truly wouldn't be here right now the way I am if not for the choices and decisions you made. I could even do better and bind each of my victims to you and you would feel every death, up close and personal. Oh no, not physical pain – I believe you've had enough of that to last you for eternity. But we both know physical pain is not the worst kind."

A wave of dizziness momentarily overwhelmed her, more than capable of grasping the terrible picture he'd painted in her mind's eye and unable to accept that more people would pay for her selfish weakness. She wanted to plead he see reason while at the same time feeling as though the only thing to do was finish what she started – and not miss this time. Kai was beyond saving, he said so himself, and planned on going out of his way to prove it to her. In fact, if the bodies that littered the barn were of any gruesome indication, he'd already done so.

How many more people needed to die before she did something about it?

A recognizable groan filled her ears, cutting short her plans, and temporarily distracted her. She turned to look, trembling as the hand disappeared from her throat, replaced by that of a faint breeze.

When she looked back, Kai was gone.

Anticipation kicked in as Bonnie bent to quickly pick up the improvised stake she'd dropped earlier, hardly sparing Damon a look as she charged for the door, intending to follow and, with a bit of luck, catch up to Kai before he got too far. She was barely outside a minute when she was sharply whirled around, the stake impulsively raised in defensive.

"Whoa, careful where you point that thing, pokey!" Damon nit-picked, wincing as the tip of the wooden chair leg brushed his stomach. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"It's the least you deserve," Bonnie jeered, yanking her arm free—which he'd allowed her to do—permitting her the chance to put distance between them. She didn't want to look at him.

"Bonnie," he said, using her full name, immediately recognizing that any former flatteries at this time would be lost on her. "About what—"

"Save it," she said, cutting short his apology, the crippling pain of desertion taking a hold of not only her heart but of her body, unable to hear anything but his gentle 'sorry' before he intended to have her die.

"Bonnie, please—" he retorted in an uncharacteristically pleading tone, his sparkling blue eyes locking upon hers. Damon very rarely gave into this façade. "I know what you must be thinking and feeling—"

"Do you?" she spat, narrowing her eyes to regard him a moment, wondering if he in fact knew her half as well as he thought he did. "Because what I'm feeling right now is hurt and inexplicable amounts of rage."

"I made a mistake. I misjudged Kai," he began, once more trying to cut through her heavy defenses. "I thought that maybe if he believed I'd given up on you, that I'd sneak up behind him and—"

"I nearly died," Bonnie tossed in for extra measure, sounding every bit as bitter as she felt.

"I'm sorry," he said, making her smile bitterly in response to how easy those apologies were coming to him now, looking as downtrodden as he had the day he'd tried to force Kai on her at the Rave.

"You're sorry?" she parroted, brushing off his remorse, strolling forward, and loathing that she was spending time quarreling with him when she should be searching for Kai. "Is that what you would have said at my funeral? Is that what you would have told Elena while she was firmly nestled in your arms at night? That you're sorry? And that when you had the opportunity to help me, to put an end to my excruciating pain you instead chose to play games with my life?" Damon hadn't listened when she told him she didn't want to be a part of his nineteen-o-three debacle with his mother and nor had he cared about her when he handed the device to Lily. He needed Bonnie then, he needed her in nineteen-ninety-four and now – now Damon simply didn't know what to do, and who to choose. Bonnie knew it probably wasn't his aim to have her die and that he probably hadn't entertained the idea of Kai's retaliation, but she couldn't help but be bitter at the thought of the giant 'what if' floating about between them. "Just go," she said, waving Damon off, heading down the side of the hill toward the cars parked in the distance. "I can take it from here. You should be with Elena."

"Team Blondie and Broody has it covered."

"And you think they'll be enough? What if Kai backtracks to the hospital?"

Damon seemed to contemplate this for a second, his hands balling into instinctive fists. "It seems too obvious and unlike his scheming neck snapping style. Besides, there is no way I am leaving you here while you're running around looking and smelling like buffy the blood-stained buffet."

"If he wanted to kill me, he'd have done it by now," Bonnie said in disagreement, sounding deceptively indifferent.

Damon didn't look convinced. "He wants to kill everybody! That's the point!" he retorted with exasperation, staring at the Bennett girl as though she'd missed the biggest clue and like she was deliberately trying to be pig-headed.

She inhaled deeply, taking wider strides to put a little more distance between them, fighting the urge to run, almost wanting to snap Damon's neck for the sake of getting him to leave her alone like he originally planned.

A distant groaning caught her attention. Damon's expression having changed before he dashed away, leaving Bonnie's heart to plummet into her shoes and her to give chase.

When she caught up, he was crouched beside a broken Alaric, the former history teacher, cradling his head, blood seeping from the wound above Alaric's eye. "Ric! You okay, man? How many fingers am I holding up?"

Alaric stared at his best friend as though he didn't even see him, looking glassy-eyed and distant. He shoved Damon's hands away, his features contorted into a hateful grimace as he looked up at Bonnie.

She crouched beside Ric, cautiously checking the wound with one hand, searching his neck for any signs of vampire teeth, and helped him to his feet, ignoring the way he'd jerked himself away from her once standing.

"I thought you said they couldn't get back here," he stated after a prolonged silence, addressing her first, his eyes gradually yet accusingly darting to Damon. "I thought you said we were safe. That you had this covered."

"I'm so sorry," Bonnie said, feeling the ache of his loss in her heart, further contributing to the pain already there.

Alaric chuckled, a hollow laugh devoid of even a hint of humor. He dropped his gaze, searching for something, and then staggered over to what Bonnie acknowledged was a handgun. He reached down to pick up it up, holding onto the nearby Jeep to keep from falling on his face. He checked it, tossing aside the empty clip and smoothly replaced it with a new one he'd retrieved from the inside of his car.

He'd never scared Bonnie more.

"I know you're suffering right now, that you're angry, but it's not her fault," Damon said, standing up for Bonnie, trying to assess the situation, sensing his friend was losing it. "None of us could have predicted he'd get out."

"Jo did," Alaric interjected as though talking to himself, his voice low, almost unheard by either of them. "She never said so, but a part of her feared that he would, that he'd come for her, for our unborn children."

Bonnie's heart sank as she, too, dreaded that very thing, especially with Lily Salvatore so adamant on returning to nineteen-o-three to collect her out of control family. Bonnie knew she'd set Kai free.

"Bonnie destroyed the ascendant to make sure he couldn't," Damon explained, putting stress on the word destroyed. "It wasn't possible. It shouldn't have been possible."

Bonnie didn't know what to say to that, didn't know how to justify what happened when she'd been having recurring nightmares of his return since the day she'd left Kai to rot in that prison world.

"You're right," Alaric murmured, no longer sounding like himself. He turned the gun on them, squeezing the trigger.

Bonnie gasped and Damon jerked, a sound of pain spilling from his lips before either of them could comprehend what Ric had done. Bonnie's eyes were wide, round and fearful.

"It's your fault," Ric declared, accentuating the accusation with another bullet.

Damon dropped to his knees, his hands clutching his stomach in shock.

"If you'd left Isobel alone I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have come to Mystic Falls in search of you," Alaric hissed, tears streaming down his drawn face. He lowered his arm before Bonnie could think to intervene, ignoring the sounds of agony coming from Damon, the blood pouring from his mouth. "You wouldn't have died and I wouldn't have lost another woman that I love because of you! First Isobel, then Jenna... and now—" Alaric reached into his car, pocketed something and shut the passenger's door. "I'm going to make sure that son of a bitch doesn't see sunrise."

Bonnie ignored Damon, rushing after Alaric, making a grab for his suit jacket to forestall his suicide mission, only to have him turn on her, the gun's muzzle suddenly pressed beneath her chin.

"I don't want to hurt you, Bonnie. But I will," he said, applying more pressure, a soft sound of discomfort slipping from her lips as the piece of wood she'd been carrying clattered to the ground.

"Jo wouldn't want you to do this," she replied, feeling tears well in her eyes once more. "She wouldn't want you to throw your life away like this."

"Maybe not," he said, swallowing thickly, sounding by no means swayed by her pleading. "But… after what he's done, after the people lost… she'd want me to end it. She'd want me to kill him."

"You're going to get yourself killed," Bonnie stated, already envisioning it, knowing that as things were headed Kai probably wouldn't hesitate to kill him. Which made her wonder why he hadn't done it yet.

"And then…" Ric began, lowering his weapon for all of a second, suddenly bringing it against the side of Bonnie's temple, carelessly shoving her out of the way to the ground, "it'll be over."

She dropped to her knees, dazed, as he scrambled away from her, determinedly strolling around the side of the car to get into it. He wasted no time starting the engine and pulling away from the gravel parking.

Bonnie forced herself to focus on the back of his truck, ignoring the drumming in her achy head, extending a hand before her. "Phasmatus ruptis!" she hissed, the car's wheels abruptly popping like four balloons, forcing it to veer to the left and through the nearby wooden fencing. She saw the driver's door swing open and then Alaric appeared at the back of the car, staring at her a moment—angry, she supposed—before turning to regard the car's cabbie window. He didn't look back and, before she knew, he took off on foot, dashing into the forest.

Where was he going? God alone only knew. But something told Bonnie there was a part of the conversation that Damon and she were missing and that there was a reason Kai hadn't straight-out killed him.

"And to think that this night started off on a high note," Damon grated, coughing, sounding in pain.

She turned back to look at him, allowing her gaze to fall to his belly where he was digging around with his fingers as if looking for hidden treasure.

"Ugh, I hate getting shot," he groaned, gritting his teeth, his hands trembling as he removed them, peering up at her with a mixture of irritation and mild pleading. "Mind giving an old friend a hand?"

She wanted to make some spiteful comment, to rub in how much it must hurt and remind Damon of the condition he'd left her in, but there wasn't time. Not only they were hunting Kai, but Alaric, too, and time wasn't on their side and unfortunately, the fastest way to do that was with Damon's bloodhound of a nose. She said nothing in relation to his comment, feeling surprisingly better as she dropped to her knees beside Damon. She guessed Kai's blood was still doing the trick. She ripped Damon's shirt away, dipping first one finger into the wound, forcing it wider, trying to grab a hold of the lead with her nail, indifferent to his sounds of agony.

"Grab it already!" he snarled, his hand swiftly latching out to clamp around her wrist, averting any further digging, drawing a startled gasp from her lips. What was it with these men trying to manhandle her?

"Stop being a baby. I'm trying to help you," she snapped, glaring.

"Is that what you're doing?" he asked, looking in no way like he believed her.

"It's too slippery."

"Argh," he moaned, forcing himself to let go of her hand. "Just do something. Please—"

Something cold wrapped around her heart, squeezing, reminding her of how she'd begged for herself and how he'd denied her. How easy—if only for appearance's sake—he made it look to walk away. She removed her finger from the wound, closing her eyes, feeling a breeze pick up around her, and then spoke, "Vitas phasmatis ferro venire ad me." Immediately the two bullets shot from his abdomen, making Damon cry out in shocked pain, his eyes rolling in his head as though he were on the verge of passing out. They floated over him an instant and then dropped. His face white from the pain he'd experienced. Bonnie pushed aside the touch of guilt that writhed its way into her and stood, going in search of her stake again.

"I asked for that," he grumbled, refraining from complaining like he wanted to.

"You did," she retorted, not at all smiling as she started across the gravel parking lot to wonder into the forest. "Enough dawdling. We need to find Alaric."

"Dawdling? I was shot," Damon pointed out, making sure she didn't mistake his pain for laziness.

"Let's go! Also, you might want to call Stefan and update him on what's happened. Let him know Kai is still running around and that he should be on the lookout."

Damon nodded, produced his phone and did just that.


	6. Chapter 6

It was so dark and quiet in the Boardinghouse it felt like a crypt. And perhaps it was what it was, exactly, for its inhabitants – the crypt of their hopes and dreams for better lives and happy endings.

Happy ending…

Kai chuckled, strolling down the basement corridor, and reflected that this whole 'happy ending' bullshit was nothing but just that: bullshit. There was no such thing: it had been proven to him many times, and he had been the one to prove it to others. No such thing, he thought grimly, observing the trail of blood that belonged to Bonnie. It had almost dried out, but still held her scent. He winced, suddenly angered at how she ingrained herself in him, how she knew that she did, and how she went ahead and used it, attempting to manipulate him and thinking she was so smart and so safe while doing it.

He discarded his bloody costume on Damon's bed, piece by piece, as he pulled on one of Damon's tee-shirts and black jeans. He curved his mouth in a slow smile and whispered, "Phasmatos incendia."

The flames surged up like a hungry tiger leaping, then sprawled across the sheets and covers and pillows, leaking on the wooden posts and headrest.

Smiling, Kai strolled out and away from the Salvatores' mansion. /

"Ew, again? I thought you quit? You promised you'd quit." She slapped the guy's arm, scowling, as though that scowl alone would dip him in terror of losing the one and only love of his life if he was to light that cigarette.

He did, smiling as he did so.

She glared. "You're disgusting. Don't bother coming in until you stop stinking." Her heels click-clacked towards the porch, up the three stairs and to the door, then inside. The door slammed shut hard, relaying the indignation and a promise of reprisals for the disobedience.

The guy laughed quietly, drawing deep on the cigarette, exhaling smoke. One moment, he was leaning against his Chevy, and the next, he was gone.

"Smoking is bad for your health and smell, but I do like the rebel spirit," Kai shared, throwing him on the ground behind someone's garage.

The guy grunted in pain, tried to get up while starting to ask what the fuck that moron was doing and could not. His windpipe – a wide subway tunnel – was abruptly reduced to a pinhole as he floated up into the air directed by Kai's hand, his legs jerking in futile attempts to find a footing. He was scratching at his throat as if to pry the invisible cord away, his eyes bulging with horrified inquiry. He had lost his cigarette somewhere between his Chevy and this garage, but the smell still clung to him.

"You won't be the best drink I've ever had, but you'll do for now," Kai told him, held out another hand, and the guy's denim jacket hung over it. "Not to get messy," Kai explained, dropping it on the lawn, then drew him closer.

The guy wheezed, jerking, his pulse skyrocketed in fright. When Kai yanked his head to the side and bared his teeth, his eyes rolled wildly in their sockets like a horse spotting a snake on the road, and his bladder let go.

Kai grimaced, "Gee, could you be more gross?"

"What th—what the—what…" the guy sputtered.

"Phasmatos attexo," Kai said, and smiled as he added, "Bonnie Bennett says hi."

"Wha—" the guy began again, but the rest of the question drowned in a gurgle as Kai fed.

And while he did, he sensed her as if she were standing next to him, partaking in the feast in spirit. Partaking in every teardrop of fear the nameless guy felt before his heart gave up with no more blood to pump. Kai licked his lips clean, shrugging the denim jacket on, then surveyed the body. "Phasmatos incendia." The orange light reflected in his eyes and flickered across the teeth his smile showed before he turned away and left. /

Damon walked ahead of Bonnie, his eyes and nose fixed ahead, sniffing and seeking in turn, hoping to stumble upon his friend soon, disappointed by how much of a head start they'd given Alaric.

"Where could he be going?" Bonnie asked with an inkling of frustration, unable to make out a damn thing in the pitch black of night, relying solely on Damon and his nose to get them there.

"Beats me, Bonnie. I'm not the witch here. Can't you do some supernatural nosedive into his brain and start digging?"

"In order for that to happen, I would firstly need something of his, secondly we would have to stop and thirdly, we don't have the time!"

Damon said nothing, sensing how irritated she was becoming, and chose to chew his tongue this once.

Bonnie stumbled slightly as a rush of fear overcame her, her heartrate picking up all at once; she extended a hand to steady herself upon a tree.

Damon's boots crunched on leaves and debris with every step, unintentionally pulling ahead her as he concentrated on finding his friend.

She inhaled deeply, shaken to the core by the familiar and yet strangely foreign emotion, tears spilling down her cheeks unchecked when it was over. She didn't need to see what had happened to know that Kai had kept his promise and was another step closer to trying to break her. To punish her for her treachery.

"Hey!" Damon asked, suddenly appearing beside her. "What happened?"

"I tripped. I think I might have twisted my ankle."

"Can you walk?" he asked, too distracted to remember the blood in her system.

"Yeah. I'm fine—" Bonnie stated, forcing her tone to sound steady. "Don't worry about me. Just… go."

She couldn't see his face but she sensed his hesitation for a second, knowing he wanted to argue with her. "Yeah. Not going to happen," he said, scooping her into his arms before she could think to tell him to let go of her, making quick work of reclosing the distance he'd made, setting her back on her feet only once he was sure they were headed in the right direction. /

A small laugh escaped Kai as he turned to face his stalker. "Oh, look at you – not as speedy these days, are you? I thought you'd never catch up, the way you were huffing and puffing for a mile."

Tyler snarled, his eyes assuming the yellow glint of those of a wolf, reflecting the light of the moon hovering over the treetops above them. He made to lunge at Kai, but there was a loud snap as though someone broke a thick branch over a knee, and he fell on the ground with a wail of pain.

Kai displayed a mock sympathy. "Aw, that's nasty. Though I do respect your resolution to finish our feud despite how bad a day you're having – it's practically 'that day of the month' for you." He laughed. "Funny. But anyhow, we do have an account to settle, I reckon. That in my little sister's name. Gee, those are multiplying – I've got another one of those penciled down for later tonight. Those naughty sisters…"

Another bone snapped, then another. Tyler rolled, screaming; fallen leaves and branches crunching beneath him, too loud to Kai's new vampire hearing. It was as if someone was dancing on the dry chicken bones scattered on the floor within his skull.

Kai heaved an exaggerated sigh, observing Tyler's body torture itself. "That's taking so damn long, pal. I've got a date I'm almost late for."

The werewolf's grunt of pain morphed into a growl as he suddenly leapt at Kai.

Kai dashed to the side the last second, and Tyler collided with a tree, pushing off it to jump the opponent again, his teeth now looking sharper. That one Kai failed to avoid, and they tumbled in a fighting heap. Tyler's jaws snapped a hair shy of Kai's throat before Kai sent him flying backwards with the Motus spell. He found his feet the same instant, and witnessed Lockwood bouncing off another tree trunk. Tyler yapped at the hit, but was up right away, more furious than ever.

Kai caught him in a magical grip as Tyler lunged himself into the air, and kept him suspended, smiling at his momentarily baffled look. "Yeah, no, you can't do that to me again. See, Fool me once… and all that. Not gonna give you the second time. Not today." His fingers wiggled slowly, as if beckoning, then bent a little like claws.

Tyler grunted and gave a strangled groan that came out half like a gurgle as blood spurted from his mouth, then ears and corners of his eyes. The trickles were detaching from his face, being drawn from it as though by an invisible magnet, and gathered in a growing, shifting sphere in front of him. More seeped from the front of his shirt, oozing from every pore of his thrashing body and adding to the liquid sphere. His eyes were bulging, as if he couldn't believe it was being done to him and it wasn't a dream he could wake from.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Kai said, a friendly smile taking over his mouth when he looked at Tyler from the sphere of his blood turning in front of Lockwood's chest like a ball of liquid silk, its sides rippling smoothly as new drops added on. "It's what magic is: beauty. And life. It's the live force even when it brings death… But there is no actual death, did you know that? Energy can't just die, or disappear forever. It can only take another form. So let it be your solace, Tyler, for that little clot of energy that you are cannot utterly cease to exist. Poetic, to say the least. And true, to say it all the way it is."

Tyler managed a quiet sound that suggested he either disagreed or didn't have it in him to react properly any longer.

Kai flexed his fingers, speeding it up a tad, and thought of Bonnie, wondering if she had felt any of it tingling the ethereal link they had between them.

Tyler's eyes rolled up showing whites. Even in the moonlight, Kai saw his skin pale and turning greyish, veins standing out in darker color like rivers on a map. His heartbeat slowed to impossible where no human would register any. Then, Kai let him drop.

He gazed at the blood sphere for a second longer, then let it lower and gently spill, soaking the ground at Tyler's still feet. Surely, that amount would bring here any vampire in the vicinity. Kai could think of one, at least, who would probably happen by. Unless the mansion burned brighter than Kai anticipated. "I'm sure you weren't tasty enough to try," he told Tyler's cooling body and hurried away into the forest.

With the silver dollar of a moon hanging in the sky, so brightly white and round, the cemetery looked like one should in the best tradition of the classic horror movies, be it vampires or werewolves to star in them. Kai walked past the Gilberts' stones and into the dark maw of the crypt. If he were human, he reflected, it would be so quiet in here as if the world outside had ended. But it wasn't now. A thin lace of subtle noises, shuffles, whispers and rustles hung around, vibrant, and he found himself lulled by it for a clockless moment until the shuffling sounds from the forest yanked him back to reality.

A figure trudged, wavering, between the trees, like a drunkard on his way from the bar. Something glistened silvery in his hand; his half-undone tie rocking on his chest like a clock's pendulum measuring his last minutes.

Kai watched, smiling, and when the man was approaching the low fence surrounding the crypt, he walked out of its mouth. "Took you long enough, and I thought I'd be late. Your buddy Tyler ate a few minutes of our time."

Ric stopped, rocked on his feet a little as if trying not to fall – Kai suspected he nearly did – and looked at Parker like someone would when trying to recognize a person they didn't see for some decent amount of years. "What did you do to him?" he asked finally in a listless tone.

"Nothing I regret." Kai looked at the gun in Ric's hand and chortled softly. "Look at you, the hero of the west. Yul Brynner, however, is a tough act to follow."

Alaric raised the gun, aiming at Kai's head, but three first shots hit the stony arc of the crypt entrance before he stopped to reassess, and his wandering eyes of a very intoxicated man found Kai leaning against the high tombstone Damon and he had chained him to some weeks ago. Slowly, like moving under water, Ric raised and aimed and shot.

Kai grabbed him by the nape of his neck from behind, his other hand squeezing Ric's wrist and crushing the bones in it. Ric cried out; the gun dropped and bounced a little off the tip of his shoe. His good hand made a grab for Kai's tightening on his sore other, but Kai jerked his arm behind his back. Alaric gave another cry as his shoulder clicked, dislocating. "What are you waiting for?" he asked breathlessly. "Finish it."

"Yeah, so easy it's disappointing, in a way," Kai mused. "But I don't feel like dancing here with you all night under the stars and ripe moon. So, sure, I'll send you to Jo right away."

"You killed her for nothing, you freak," Ric uttered between his teeth. "She's not your damn father. She was done with your damn coven for good."

"Oh no," Kai laughed, "one cannot be done with our damn coven until one dies. And she wasn't an angel to me, either, Ric. All these years in the prison, her little parting smile of triumph haunted my dreams. Those years were long and many, so I was kinda bitter to begin with. And when your merry band of friends landed me in yet another prison, I kinda started wondering if she was involved. And even if she wasn't, I believe she was inappropriately happy I was locked away again. So yes, Ric, even if I was gonna be more lenient after she gave me her magic and we made nice, that little merry band I mentioned has ruined that to hell. I hope you had your chance to file that complaint to them, because after a few minutes you won't be worrying about this earthly crap." Kai murmured the link spell, tipped Saltzman's head sideways harshly and tucked into the side of his neck.


	7. Chapter 7

"He couldn't have gotten that far from us," Bonnie groused, frightened for the history teacher and feeling helpless. Alaric wasn't thinking straight and Kai was able to move from one place to the next in seconds, like Damon, like any vampire. "We should have caught up by now."

"You forget he is a trained hunter," Damon stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and as if she should in some way feel embarrassed for forgetting. "If he doesn't want to be found. He won't be."

"And you forget that he lost the love of his life," Bonnie retorted, feeling the tension rise in the air. She didn't have to see his face to know she'd hit a sore subject. A matter she knew would be with them for as long as she continued to live and Damon was deprived of the love of _his_ life. "And that he is acting impulsively."

"You said it yourself, Bon-Bon. He lost the woman he loved, and right now, he has absolutely no ground to stand on. He hardly knows which way is up."

"That doesn't give him the right to go charging off into the unknown to get himself or anyone else killed," she said, aware of how hypocritical that sounded considering she'd been the one to start this.

"Maybe not," Damon agreed. "But for the few seconds your world is spinning out of control and you have no way in which to anchor yourself anymore. It helps."

Bonnie wished that was something Damon mentioned during his spellbinding speech some weeks back, while trying to recruit her for his mission and before she involuntarily assisted in the murder of a coven and her new friend.

"So much for my niffler theory," she muttered, removing her phone from her pocket, tapping at the screen to bring up the torch app, hopeful that she would recognize and understand where he was heading herself.

"A… what now?"

"A treasure seeking—whatever, look, shouldn't you be able to pick up on his cologne or something?"

"It's not that simple."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Kai's been busy. This place is saturated in blood from every approach and to a vampire—even one as controlled as me—that can be a little overwhelming."

How long had they been walking anyway? Ten minutes? Fifteen? It felt like forever and that lingering fear still swept through her, increasing as soon, it seemed, as she put my mind to it. She stiffened, feeling a rush of anxiety close around her heart, prominent distress taking a hold of her being like a puppet master pulling at unwilling strings, it wasn't as bad as the first course, but it was perceptible.

Damon, too, seemed to pick up on something, his face unseen in the dark as he stared ahead, his arms suddenly wrapping around her, unaware of her inner turmoil as he picked her up and raced through the forest. There was nothing to do but hold on and make sure she didn't drop her phone.

When he set her down on her feet she immediately registered the human shaped lump and rushed toward it, raising her phone to help make out what the moon and the trees overhead hadn't allowed her to fully see. "Oh god, Tyler," Bonnie whispered as soon as she saw who it was, his face gray and streaked with similar lines she'd seen on a desiccated vampire. How was that even possible? He'd only recently transitioned back to wolf.

"Looks like Lockwood Junior finally bit off more than he could chew," Damon remarked indiscreetly.

"Damon," she barked, glowering at him, imploring him to focus, two fingers automatically attempting to find a pulse, and failing. "Oh, God," she murmured in horrified disbelieve, her heart thumping in her chest erratically, nausea pulsing its way up her throat threatening to steal her breath. "I can't find a pulse. Damon… I can't-," her voice cracking, unable to voice aloud what her head was screaming, 'He's dead!' She and Tyler might not have been best friends, but they grew up together, played sports together, and had been a part of each other's lives since they were six years old.

"It's there," Damon responded and crouched on the other side of our fallen ally, biting into his wrist, prying open his mouth to force the blood down his throat. "His heartbeat," he clarified. "But it's faint."

She kept a hold on Tyler, briefly wondering if it had been him she felt a few moments ago or if this was an unhappy coincidence.

If it was, that meant Kai was still close by, right? That this was recent?

Bonnie blinked the tears from her eyes and distractedly noticed the dissimilarities in color upon the ground, an unsettling feeling taking a hold of her as she raised her phone to take a better look, her eyes widening at the sight of the blood she was kneeling in. She shot up like a bullet, as if stung, and gasped at the grotesque picture before her. Tears coursed down her cheeks unchecked.

Damon pulled his wrist free and glanced over at her for a second, still tending to Tyler, taking over where she'd started and waiting for the magical lifesaver to do its job.

"Where are we?" Bonnie asked, hoping they were closer to having a response.

"Nearer the cemetery," Damon answered without hesitation, having been in this area enough over the last few months to know.

"Are you sure?"

"Niffler nose, remember?"

She nodded, trusting Damon to be right, and wasted no time calling Caroline, hating the feeling of Tyler's blood soaked into her pants, sticking to her knees in dreadful reminder of what happened. She felt uncomfortable.

"Bonnie?" Caroline answered, sounding nothing like herself, as though she feared to hear someone else on the other side of the line.

"It's me."

"Oh, thank God! Are you alright?"

"No," Bonnie answered, feeling no need to hide from her.

"Are you hurt?! Stefan said you went after Kai. Why didn't you tell me?!"

"No. I'm okay. I'm fine—I mean physically. Caroline—it's Tyler."

"Tyler?" she echoed, sounding alarmed and confused all at the prospect of what Bonnie might tell her.

Bonnie knew that their relationship—at least romantically—was over, but they were good friends. They meant something to one another, the same way Jeremy would always mean something to her.

"Is he—"

"No," Bonnie responded. "I don't know—Damon gave him of his blood, but—"

There was a sob from across the line and I heard Stefan mutter something supportive, offering to take the phone from her. She refused.

"You need to come get him. Alaric's gone Rambo rampage and Damon as I are trying to get up to him."

Damon stood as though in reaction to the mention of his name. Three shots ringing out in succession.

"Okay," Caroline said, sounding more determined. Bonnie could already hear her walking, her footsteps echoing off the hospital tiles, along with raised voices here and there in the background.

"Bonnie!" Damon said in a rush, gesturing sidelong into the distance, taking off without her.

Bonnie detested that she needed to leave Tyler unattended and prayed the blood would kick in. "We're in the forest nearer the cemetery. Hurry! He won't be too hard to find, but be careful, Caroline and do me a favor," she said, sounding out of breath as she ran after Damon.

"Anything."

"Don't stick around! Take him and go!" She hung up, grunting as the blood slicked to her boots sent her sailing off balance and crashing to the ground. She yelped as her knees connected with an unseen stone, the phone slipping from her hand, temporarily lost beneath a pile of fallen and broken leaves. She knew it would bruise instantly—or might have—if not still for the blood in her system. She drew in a breath, forcing herself up again, shaking out the pain, and collected her phone, using the light to navigate the way, her stomach promptly filling with a sinking feeling, one she instantly recognized as being artificially induced.

Kai was attacking again. /

Damon found the two without difficulty, a branch in his hands swung like a hefty baseball bat, effortlessly dislodging the psycho from his best friend's neck, sending him sailing across the uneven sand. Damon attempted to replace him, biting into his wrist and trying to press it to Alaric's slack mouth, scarcely wasting time to see if he was too late or if Kai managed to get to his feet again.

Kai was in no particular hurry and quite sated, so he drew it out a little, taking pleasure in the way Alaric's body still fought for life while his mind lowered its weapons and shields wishing for the torture to be over. His heart beat erratically against Kai's temples like a scared bird thrashing in a cage at a cat's approach. Kai pulled long, full gulps from his vein, still feeling he could use extra fuel tonight before the dark dissipated. Alaric's good old pump began to slow and stagger, and each convulsive contraction of it sent a jolt of energy through Kai's body, igniting the nerve endings as if in anticipation for a grander pleasure. Those last moments of their lives, Kai found, were the drug all vampires craved, the big finale with fireworks and exaltation.

There was a firecracker, all right, but not the one Kai was nearing. It exploded in the back of his head, and as the hit sent him flying into a tombstone, he saw some constellations that weren't supposed to exist. Pain shot through his bones and muscles as he propelled into the stone, momentarily blinding him; a bone crunched breaking in his shoulder. Propped on his fours, Kai jerked it straight, grunting, then found his feet and spent a second observing Damon cradle Ric in his arms, pressing his wrist to the pale man's lips.

Kai raised a hand and Damon floated up leisurely, like those warriors in Chinese movies before the attack. "You son of a bitch!" Salvatore spat, glaring, his limbs flailing as if he were trying to stay afloat in water. "Put me down and let's fight like men."

Kai laughed. "Yeah, I noticed you're the best at that specific way of fighting – like men – aka hitting from behind." He turned his wrist, and Damon cried out as his spine broke in three places.

On the ground, beneath Damon's flailing feet, Alaric groaned weakly.

"Now, what should I do to you?" Kai mused, eyeing the older Salvatore like he were an exotic butterfly pinned to a cardboard. He could hear Damon's spine heal – the tiny sounds that you might mistake for your own brain cells shifting around. It was like claiming you heard how the trees grew, but it was exactly the analogy to pop in his mind. He flicked his wrist again; Damon gave a strangled cry as something crunched and broke along his body. His legs hung like lifeless rags, his eyes rolling slowly, on the verge of passing out. Kai smiled. "Funny you all came here tonight – dying in the very place of your eternal rest has a certain ring to it. I like it. Too bad you can't compose a few lines about this beautiful moment like samurais did – not because you're in such pain, but because I honestly believe you don't possess enough brainpower or imagination to muster something like that. Shame. But one thing I can do for you: I can grant you the spectacular end of a samurai. You'll have it easier – in a way – I'll have to gut you myself whereas those brave fellas did it with their own swords and hands. And I shall be your kaishakunin to take your head off when you're done taking your noble torture." A slow smile of wicked diversion shimmered over his mouth as Kai pointed a finger at Damon and began shifting it sideways while Damon jerked and screamed.

His shirt darkened on his abdomen as a gash opened in his right side and crawled towards his left like a cracking grin spilling blood like a cut wine-skin. A first ribbon of intestines slithered out, like a bond of sausages from a torn pack, and hung in a lifeless loop over his crotch.


	8. Chapter 8

Bonnie kept low as she rushed past and through row after row of headstones, foolishly nursing the idea that Damon might have waiting for her, unable to sense in what direction to go and becoming frustrated with herself. An agony filled cry punctured the air, anguish, Bonnie acknowledged immediately, belonged to her former partner in crime. She reached around her waist to take hold of the improvised stake, assuming she'd tucked it into her back pocket, grimacing when she found it wasn't there. She couldn't remember when she last held it and resigned herself to the unfavorable fact that she'd dropped it when Damon zipped her from place to place.

"Too bad you can't compose a few lines about this beautiful moment like samurais did – not because you're in such pain, but because I honestly believe you don't possess enough brainpower or imagination to muster something like that," she heard Kai say, panic flitting through her.

Bonnie snuffed out the light on her phone and pocketed it, relying on the dim light provided by the moon, hoping his distraction would buy her a little time. She remained crouched—unlike she did earlier where she thought she could walk in and take control of the situation—this time was different, this time she wasn't going to play life's risk. She closed her eyes, diving deep into herself, ignoring Kai's yammering in the background and the screams that filled the air.

She _had_ to.

Wind picked up slightly, howling through the treetops like a caged beast seeking escape, ruffling her hair, temporarily thrusting her back to the time when she was determined to contact Qetsiyah, dealt with expression and searched for assistance to subdue Silas. A man, who, at mere thought alone, filled her with hatred so intense it took mere seconds to link Kai and her. Was that expression? Or simple magic? She didn't even know, but she felt it lock in, twisting and rooting itself in her soul and his like a perceptible chain that would prevent him from getting away from her a second time.

Kai's cut had crawled almost two thirds of its way across Damon's abdomen, the loops of his intestines slipped further down from the gaping wound. His screams turned into wheezes; his limbs trembling a little as though there was a low current running through his body disguised as pain. Kai could imagine how bad the pain was – it was one of the things he knew and wished to forget.

And then, he sensed it. A bashful dab like a lackadaisical breath of wind on the tight and thin strings of his inner sensors. _She is here. Bonnie made it here._

Kai found himself smiling. Somehow, it felt right, like a long and jumbled scheme suddenly clicked in place and everything finally fit. There was more to it: a feeling of being watched from the inside of his own head. As the wind picked up, shifting the dead leaves between the tombstones and trees, he knew she had done something to pay back his own trick. It made his smile wider, he didn't mind. It could only make things more interesting.

She stood, trying to catch her breath, trying to ignore the delicious hum of power that spread through her as the wind grew stronger, closing around the crypts delineated area like an invisible barrier. She emerged from hiding, her eyes widening slightly as they fixated on the scene ahead filling her with nausea that soon turned to ferocious hate. Bonnie rung her hands together, imitating snapping Damon's neck, making sure he would no longer have to undergo Kai's savage torture. "Motus!" she hissed, wasting no time in awaiting on a retaliation, sending Alaric skittering across the dirty ground and away from Kai as though he were a human puck being swatted by a giant hockey stick.

Saltzman stilled a dozen yards away, let out a meek groan and didn't move. Kai reckoned Damon hadn't managed to put enough blood in him for any effective healing to take place. Then again, Kai didn't really care. His eyes went to Bonnie who strolled towards him, wind playing with her hair, moonlight spilling over her figure, outlining her form and making her seem like the goddess Nemesis.

There could have been an adoring expression plastered on his face, Kai recognized, and didn't care to change it. A wave of his hand sent Damon's body flying; the vampire collided with a tree trunk and dropped at its roots, his guts clustered at his middle like dead snakes.

Bonnie steeled herself as Kai dismissed Damon, forcing herself to keep eye contact and not look where he landed. Kai was grinning too, like a sadistic fool.

"Bonster! Finally. I was starting to miss you – your friends are being a bunch of bores. So, what now?" Tipping his head sideways, Kai smiled a friendly smile. "Revise the old tricks or got something new? Or maybe you decided a set of fangs would suit you better than magic that never saves anyone the way you want it to, mm?"

"I've never been a fan of fangs. Especially in regards to my neck." Her lips twisted into a deceptive smile that matched his own, much like it had earlier in the evening, fading as abruptly.

Kai could see right through her smile, and it was the same as before – no, even more steel behind it, cold and distant.

He hurt her in return – and succeeded. His blows had found their aim, just like he wanted and knew they would. Somewhere behind that wall of steel she had built, there was the heated core of duty that brought her back to him. He was a bit curious, but his curiosity had hurt on its arm. It still nibbled at him that she would never see his side of the story, that she would always pick another side and deem him a reckless beast. And it still bothered him that he could never even begin to explain what exactly had made him this way. There were things that could not be explained, or put to words. They could only be experienced; and they could only twist you in unnatural ways and directions, many times over, until you believed it was what you really were.

"I think I'll take my chances with the magic," Bonnie said, giving way to tight voice, a hand clawing at the air, stealing away the breath she knew he had no need for, squeezing his windpipe to give weight to her answer. "All this practice with and _on_ you is positively helping bring up my average. Besides—" she flung him back against the nearest tree as if she'd shoved him, "—I'd love to know what you did to Tyler and how it's even possible to desiccate a werewolf."

Kai waved back, hitting a tree behind him so the remaining air whooshed out of his lungs. He made a swooping gesture, and she went down as though he swayed a leg under hers. Her magical grip loosened and Kai chortled, unnecessarily rubbing his throat as he made a few steps away from the tree trunk. "The marvelous thing is, I've no idea and yet I did it." He gave a laugh of a person that has finally flipped a pancake in the air without dropping it on the laminate instead of the pan.

Bonnie was scrambling to her feet, her face momentarily distorted with the small aches and bruises of the fall. That revelation frightened her. What else could Kai do? Would he be able to compel her? He was a witch, after all, and a huge contrast to Klaus—who was a mix of vampire and werewolf— she didn't want to find out.

"There are not too many ways to pacify a rabid dog, you know," Kai shared. "Funny thing about rabid dogs… Have you ever given it a thought? I did. You see, I've read that story once that I liked very much – Cujo by Stephen King. And it teaches you that rabid dogs don't consider themselves crazy – rather all the rest of the world starts to seem that way, a little too noisy, a little too nuts. So, if you ever – God forbid – find yourself cornered by a rabid dog, Bonsey, before you hate it, remember something: 'It would perhaps not be amiss to point out that he had always tried to be a good dog.'" Merriment seeping out of his countenance, Kai had her in his own clutch and suspended, the soles of her shoes a couple of inches short of the dust beneath. His fingers wiggled, and her chest tightened, allowing breaths too shallow for comfort.

 _Oh, god, no!_ Bonnie made a bid to deflect his intention and felt her chest tighten with what she assumed to be anxiety, afraid of further repetition, a phantom pain running up her spine in preparation of what she believed was to come. That anxiety grew, revealing what she recognized was Kai similarly stealing her breath away as she had only done moments ago, merely playing games with her head and heart.

He canted his head to one side as if admiring a piece of art on his wall, and smiled a little. "And he tried, indeed. He might not have fully known what it was like – no dog ever knows until its shown the way and, most importantly, the encouragement to do the right thing – but he did try. It was a bit like groping your way through a dark room where no shadow makes sense before you find the light switch, but he did try. He wanted to try. And then he still got that damn rabies. Life's not fair, is it? It never fucking is. Or maybe, just for that godforsaken dog. In any case, he tried and then shit happened, and he could try no more."

"Phas—" Bonnie choked out in an inaudible whisper of panic, struggling to form the words needed to break his hold. She gasped softly at the gentle squeezing of her ribcage.

He approached her with leisure steps, tightening her sternum ever so slightly, and searching her face in the moonlight. "Take a good look, Bonnie Bennett, for before you stands what you have created. From the look in your eyes I take it you don't like what you see. Now, take a wild guess, why the Frankenstein monster killed its creator? I'm dead certain it's for that precise look in his eyes." His face twisted with a brief grimace of either disdain or pained dismissal, and he released her to slump.

Gravity promptly delivered her to her knees, giving her a few unforeseen seconds to try and expel the lingering sensations that still threatening to smother her. Bonnie unconsciously took his counsel, staring up at him, really looking at the person she allegedly created, and trying to gauge her next attack.

"You're not a Frankenstein," she retorted, glad her voice showed no signs of strain or fear or anything that might make her appear weak or as if she was trying to pacify him. "And nor are you a rabid dog infected by an incurable disease." Although, out of context, both equivalences made a lot of sense. "You're sick," she said, feeling the truth dawn on her amidst the reiteration of his heartfelt speech, by no means meaning offense or trying to sound spiteful. "I was alone for two months, maybe more and I couldn't hack it. You were alone for eighteen years. It eats away at your state of mind—it did mine. I'm still not sure I've recovered and at times I doubt I ever will," she deliberated, undaunted that he might scoff at her approach, explaining only what she'd shared with Damon and what even Damon didn't seem to comprehend. It was as if that connection they'd made—to some degree—was lost and she was alone again, floundering on the outs, trying to find her footing on a skyscraper ledge. "What you're doing now," she motioned to Damon who was still unconscious and probably would be until his intestines were returned to the inside of his body (or, at least, she hoped so), "what you did tonight, was a conscious choice. I never made you be this person, I never meant for you to be this person." And she still didn't. "You say you're the product of the people around you – well, so am I. Trust breeds trust. And this person," she gestured to his chest, "this is who I believed you were – the one that scared me so much the only way I could think to continue with MY life… was to get rid of him." She'd said it once tonight already, but she needed him to know she meant it and that he'd only further reinforced that thought. You couldn't turn your back on a pit bull and that you almost always got bit. Damon had done it multiple times in the past, and although she was her friend now, although she trusted him to a certain extent—she hadn't forgotten and never would. Damon, like Kai, was unpredictable and would stab you in the back—or front—with a smile, friend or foe. "You want to prove otherwise, you want me to see the light and go back to thinking you're just a good-looking guy with a very wordy vocabulary? Then do something about it – be better than me. Or…" she added, an invisible hand finding Kai's throat once more, the other used to immobilize him, drawing him forward slowly as though skating on ice and to his knees in front of her so that they were eye to eye. There was no malice in the action, only determination. And why now? Why suddenly she felt it important to see how badly she screwed up—or whether or not he was trying to play her—she didn't know.

Kai felt a hold tighten on his throat once again, and without even trying yet, he suddenly knew he couldn't move. She was pulling him towards her and down to his knees, and there they stood on the same eyelevel. She was scrutinizing his face – and there was wariness, a whole lot of it, while she tried to gauge whether or not he was going to lash out, but there was also something he'd craved to see back in the barn: she was no longer wearing the amicability camouflage while seeking a weak spot to hit from underneath it. She was being honest, or at least strived to be.

"I can just take a look in your head and see at what you've been so quick to tell me. But afraid to really show me." Bonnie released the pressure on his throat, as well as his limbs, and raised a hand, slowly leaning forward to brush her index and middle fingers against his temple, anticipating his attack or allowing for his permission. Something she knew would make or break how they moved on from here or whether or not one of them was really going to die tonight.

Things she said were thrumming in Kai like a thunderstorm over the ocean, waves clashing and crushing, lightning cutting through the dark and catching the tumult in blinding snapshots. It was near to impossible to snatch the emotions from the boiling stew to dissect. Indignation was there, he recognized vaguely. So was hurt, his ever loyal accomplice, and so was despair with its faint fragrance of decay. Amidst them, there was a tiny, dying firefly of hope he dared to pick up. He wasn't sure if it would live or he could as well smash it now to spare it misery.

Kai chuckled, like an alien trying to mimic it for the first time. "Trust is something out of this world for me, Bonnie. I might as well ask you to explain it to me at this point, but that'd be long – not for you to explain but for me to perceive." He shook his head with another meek chuckle, took her hand in his gingerly and drew it down from his temple, looking at her with a penetrating gaze.

Bonnie made no move to withdraw her hand, a show of acceptance and a temporary truce. His touch was gentle and deceptively different, and not in a way that was entirely unpleasant.

"Right now," he said, "I feel there's only been betrayal, because we always yearn for happy moments and yet tend to remember the sad. Isn't it twisted? No matter how bright a happy moment is and how deep it touches you, this memory will fade like an old picture while the tiniest embarrassment will haunt you for the rest of your life craving to become your obsession. I've had quite a few to compete for the obsession title, but somehow your back-stab stands out. I've figured my family out pretty early in my life, and I always expected a hit in the back with them, so they just merely confirmed it. But you – oh, you I had thought of differently. There was trust I put in you, but it bred your darkest dreams coming true – the very ones you said you were trying to end. Ironic, huh? Is this world really screwed up or what?" Kai gave another laugh he didn't really mean. They came like some unwitting physical reactions he no longer watched closely. "You say you didn't mean for me to turn into this – then tell me, Bonnie, what the fuck did you mean? Did you really want to kill me despite having Jo and the rest of us the Flintstones die? Or did you intend to trade your nightmares for mine? For it's exactly what it looked like, and guess what – you got me good."

Did she want to kill him at the time? Yes, yes and yes! Bonnie admitted as much twice tonight and might have done it a third time if he'd given her room to do so. She felt compelled to do so. Her grams used to tell her that it was wrong to run away from your problems and that eventually—no matter how long you thought you could hide—they'd come back and bite you in the bum. Bonnie was too weak to remember that, so consumed by everything and trying to reacquaint herself with the noisy world that she'd become selfish. She could admit that, too. But what did Jo have to do with it? Or the Flintstones? Or was that one of his many crypt references?

"You wonder what it was like to live in it?" he asked. "What I'm afraid to show? It was indeed like a dream you can't wake up from. At first, it's a wonder – the way all new things are. You poke around it and try to decipher, but later it gains new colors and those colors darken by the second with every drop of realization to seep in. And then you start wondering whether you'd be better off if you let the madness in – it's right there teetering on your threshold anyway."

Bonnie knew was he was talking about, she felt part of that madness when she stabbed him in the back and arranged to finish the job. It had been scarily overwhelming, an inexplicit high and like this dark abyss that sucked you in whole. Even now as she continued to meet his keen gaze and recalled that moment to memory, she couldn't imagine that that was her. It felt as if it were someone else, someone new, someone far feistier and determined to protect herself. It scared her and made her wonder when she lost herself and when the idea of murdering someone—no matter how immoral—became acceptable to her?

"And then you fear it," Kai continued, "because it's the scariest thing of all – even for a man stuck in his nightmare – to lose himself. Because, at that point, Bonnie, himself is the very sole and last thing the damn man has left. And then, after eons of the same torture with no hope of getting out, you decide oh fuck it and let it in, and guess what – it doesn't. Help. Squat. Madness is just not designed to soothe your sufferings. It adds a new edge to every picture, but the edges are sharp. And also, while you're testing its limits, it steals the very core that is you, grain by grain, until there's nothing but a stump you can't relate to. And then the hell really starts when there's no longer any ground under your feet and you're falling into an eternal rabbit hole with nothing to grab on to stall it. It all blurs into the same – just darkness, just pure, raw agony with nothing to make out and blame it on. And when there's nothing to grab on, you can't fix it. And then there was you." He put her hand on her lap when he became aware he was still holding it, and let go, releasing a shaky breath and partially hating himself for biting the bait and coming too close to the edge of the pit he tried his best to keep away from ever since he got out of the prison.

The longer Bonnie stared at him, the more she felt the gradual rising of guilt start to stir. Kai was no innocent, she knew that, she believed that wholeheartedly and he'd even gone so far as to prove it—more than once—but a part of her now understood it better, saw things from his perspective and could relate on a level that humanized him. How was he supposed to be good, to try and make things okay when people—like her, like his family—were unwilling to do so or at least give him the benefit of the doubt? She didn't want to hear it, not when Damon brought him to her and not when she met him in that diner, purposely ignoring every single sign that made her second-guess her intentions or what she might do, determined to believe that the merge was temporary and that when it changed, she'd be the first on his hit list. Bonnie guessed that was something she'd learned from Damon, Elijah and Klaus. They didn't respect weakness or civility and as soon as you showed them even the slightest hint – it was over, someone you loved paid the cost, and for once in her life, she wasn't going to leave things to chance.

She glanced down at her lap, curling her fingers into her palm, disconcerted by the sudden lack of warmth that spread throughout my body, and feeling as wrecked by his emotions as she was by her own.

Kai looked at her face again, no longer certain he had any feelings left – peeking in that pit exhausted them, sucked out their souls. "I bet you at least once wondered why I only revealed myself to you two after four months. Truth is I had to first backtrack to being human again – and boy, was that impossible. I watched you to remember what it was to be a human, how to interact with another human, and to build back what I had been before I was a void." Kai swallowed hard and drew a deep breath, forcing himself away from the ever hungry pit of darkness engraved into the floor of the main hall of his inner self. "Trust me, you don't want me to actually _show_ it all to you, because when you peek into the abyss, it peeks into you. You hurt me really bad, Bon, and a part of me thinks it's fair to plant the same pain in you that you chose to revive in me. So be careful what you ask for – you could get it."

She swallowed, shaken by the impact she—they—had on his life and how much of a shock it must have been for him. She could hear the pain of such an admittance in his voice, like he was afraid to be vulnerable again.

He rendered her speechless, making her reevaluate her desire to slide a decent amount of wood through his heart and end this story once and for all. His pain would be over and justice would be served. But at what cost and for whose gain? It wouldn't change anything. Jo would still be dead, Alaric's life would still be ruined and Bonnie'd still be trying to keep her head above water. Death wasn't the answer—not this time—and suddenly, in light of what he'd said and what she now understood, Bonnie found herself unwilling to repeat her mistake.

A heartbeat picked up behind Kai, and he sensed Alaric stir.

Kai felt his mouth crease in a slow jovial smile that had a predatory hint to it. He had an unfinished business. But as he dashed to oblige, a harsh yank in his solar plexus stole the air from his lungs and brought him down on his knees again, yards shy of where his sister's lover lay. He started to laugh quietly and looked around at Bonnie with wicked mirth. "That's what you did! You put a leash on me."

Bonnie steeled her nerves, shrugging dismissively, matching his sudden change in attitude, and stood.

Laughing, he got up, eyeing her with a wry admiration. "Neat. But so stupid."

She swallowed, ignoring the bout of fear that automatically wanted to play into her nervous system, and forced herself to remember that he was still unable to hurt her and that he'd spent ten minutes pouring his heart out to her. And it wasn't an act, it wasn't some means of trying to win her over.

"How stupid is it to hold a rabid dog on a leash and jerk at it? Huh? Oh, I remember you said I could prove I wasn't that bad, after all. But don't you remember in your turn when I told you I could do it no more? There was that moment when I wanted to – I didn't know WHY but I goddam wanted to!" Anger spilled its warmth in his gut, and Kai felt a little comforted, a little more grounded again. "And WHY, why would I want it now when you freed me from the sole motivation I had to do so?"

"I don't believe that," she said, refraining from moving, not wanting to treat him like the savage pup he deemed himself to be, that wasn't the point of this exercise. She wasn't that stupid. "It's not over for you, you don't get to give up because times are hard and the people you care about can't see past their own self-centeredness to grant you a little faith. Being bad isn't easier, it's cowardly. And I should know. I've been there, I've been to the place you are right now and frankly, I didn't like it. You, on the other hand, fall upon it like it's habit. Like Damon," she stated with trivial disgust, registering that this one was yet to wake up and fully out for the count. Kai did a number on him.

Kai scowled at the name. God knew he was done hearing it for tonight.

"You blame the world for your issues and your family for what has happened and refuse to take even the slightest responsibility for anything yourself. I did you wrong, but that man—" she gestured toward Alaric, "—he hasn't. But that doesn't matter to you, does it? Because you're too scared of what it would mean and too afraid to admit that you've taken this too far and don't know how to stop, don't know how to turn this around and make it better."

With and expression of a geek attending a lecture on the deep space telemetry, Kai listened with a mixture of vague wonder and sardonic humor while she tried to dissect his current state of mind. The recollection of his 'dark hour of the soul' took so much his feelings were dazed from the overload. He couldn't relate to what she was saying he should be feeling, and it struck him a little bit funny.

"I get it," she said. "Until this moment I didn't know how either. But I'm going to help you."

Abruptly, Bonnie snapped his neck with the same efficiency she had Damon's.

"And you're going to let me."


	9. Chapter 9

"Quod videtur realis, non," Bonnie murmured, extending a hand in front of her, flipping Kai over onto his back, dragging him toward her with no more than a beckoning motion. She met him halfway.

She could make out Alaric's silhouette in the dark as she stepped over Kai, crouching down on him, a hand lowering into the dirt beside his sprawled form. "Quid est autem, non."

A piece of wood materialized in her right hand as she pulled it from the earth itself. Her knees coming to rest on either side of his hips as she straddled Kai's waist, hesitating for a second as an image of his frightened face sprung to memory, only this time he had nowhere to go and couldn't poof himself to safety. And surprisingly, knowing she would win this time was nowhere near as satisfying as Bonnie remembered thinking it would be. She closed her eyes, preparing herself for the killing blow, and swiftly stabbed the wood into his heart, his body quickly starting to gray, veins webbing their way across his face and anything else left exposed in the moonlight.

Bonnie looked up, barely able to disconcert what Alaric was thinking or to fully make out his expression. He came no closer and nor did he say anything, seemingly quiet as he backtracked into the forest and took off again.

Her heart went out to him but she didn't give chase. She stayed seated on Kai's unmoving frame, removed her phone from her back pocket and redialed Caroline.

She answered after one ring. "Bonnie?"

"Did you find Tyler?" Bonnie asked immediately, forging the usual greeting, scrutinizing the body beneath her.

"He was sitting up by the time I got there, muttering about Liv and crying. God, there was so much blood, Bonnie. I nearly lost it. I tried to take him to the hospital but he outright refused. I couldn't talk him out of it," her voice cracking with concern for her former boyfriend's health.

"Is he okay?" Bonnie wasn't really referring to his physical health, more so worried about his emotional state.

"I doubt he or any of us will be for a while. But Matt's with him," she responded, taking on a morose tone, one Bonnie could sense broke her heart. She hated change. "He killed her, that's how he triggered the curse—"

"Who?" Bonnie asked automatically, feeling her heart skip a beat and a sinking feeling of dread seep into her bones.

"Liv. She was dying and she asked him to—" Caroline couldn't even finish what she was trying to say and Bonnie selfishly didn't want to hear it—not wanting the horror story to influence what she was planning to do.

"Was it Kai? Did he do something to her?" she asked, incapable of keeping her curiosity at bay.

"No, well, I don't know. I was passed out at the time. He snapped my neck. Stefan said they were linked."

There was a drawn-out pause between the them while Bonnie wrestled the infliction of doubt that gnawed at her gut, instinct that refused to bring Caroline into her plans or ask any more questions. Unfortunately, if there was one thing Bonnie learnt over the years: lies and doing things behind her friends' backs never went well – not for her.

"Bonnie, are you still there?" Caroline asked, her best-friend instincts kicking in. Bonnie never was good at lying to her and found that over the years she only permitted it because she'd too had a lot going on in her life.

"I need your help," Bonnie said, swallowing as she did. "And I need you to not talk me out of it. Okay?"

"What's going on?"

She exhaled and told Caroline where to pick her and two other bodies up, informing her that Damon was hurt and that he would undoubtedly need a lot of blood to heal.

"I'll be there in five minutes."

"Oh, and don't tell Stefan. Not yet anyway."

"What? Why?"

Bonnie didn't have an answer for her. "It's complicated." She brought her free hand to her knee, pushed off Kai and the ground, and strolled toward Damon, feeling guilty for having taken so long to get to him. "Please, just do this for me, Caroline."

After they hung up on one another, Bonnie put a fifteen minutes timer on her phone and turned on the device's torch app, her eyes widening, bile rising in the back of her throat at the sight of Damon's intestines resting in the dirt like oversized and stagnant earthworms. She was going to be sick. She tipped her head skyward to stave off the overwhelming nausea, a slight tremor in her hands as she turned her back on him, unable to stomach the image. She could now see why Damon hadn't healed. She took two or three steadying breaths, feeling her head dizzy for a spell and her hands grow clammy as she spun around to face him again. Bonnie forced herself to join him on her knees in the dirt, barely easing him onto his back when a putrid stench assaulted her senses. Queasiness returned at full force, vomit spurting from her lips before she could even think to regain control of her stomach's contents. This continued for five solid minutes.

Bonnie was crying by the time she stopped dry-heaving, tears involuntarily drawn into the works by her puking, the back of her hand lifted to her wet lips to wipe away the traces of bitter sick she could still taste upon her tongue.

She swallowed once she regained her composure, her hand shaking as she placed her phone in the dirt and trained it upon Damon's open abdomen to give her light to work with. Her lips drew down into an unpleasant grimace as she grabbed a quivering hold of the stringy—and no longer slippery—piece of intestine, trying her best to put it back where it belonged, doing her best to ignore the blood she was sitting in.

"Ugh," Damon groaned in agony, coming alive with the contact, her one hand buried inside his abdomen as if he were a human turkey in need of stuffing, while the other worked at a daze trying to make sure she didn't carry twigs and other gross titbits into his exposed underbelly. "That sadistic son of a bitch," he hissed from between clenched teeth, raising his head off the ground like a drunk, his eyes staring down at his stomach and the hand dipped in it, then darting to her face with disbelief.

"Trust me, it feels as gross as it looks."

"Uggh," he groaned, lying back down, sweeping into a fairly painful unconsciousness for about half a second.

Bonnie finished up and pulled her hands free, noticing that he was starting to heal, but sluggishly – he lost too much blood.

"If I get my hands on Kai, he's fucking dead," he snarled, coming back for a verbal round two, sounding like a dog caught in a bear trap and struggling to think, at last minute remembering another important piece of his agony-filled puzzle. He raised his head once more to look, unable to see anything but severe stars dancing in front of his eyes like nauseating beacons. He hadn't seen Kai, yet. "Where's Ric?"

"Alaric's okay," Bonnie answered to try and put his mind at ease. "At least in the physical sense." She wasn't so sure about the emotional aspect. "And take it easy," she commanded, placing a hand against his shoulder to calm him down as he tried to get a better look around, doing his best to ignore the blinding pain that stemmed from his belly. "If your guts falls out again I sure as hell am not picking it up."

Damon laughed, hysterical jollity that was short-lived as pain sliced through him and rendered him weak.

She couldn't believe it either, this had taken their friendship to a whole new level, a routine she never hoped to explore again.

Ever.

She wiped her hands clean the best she could on her soiled jeans, the rancid smell freshly caked beneath her fingernails, as she listened to Damon groan while his body little by little knitted together.

Caroline arrived soon after.

"I thought you said five minutes?"

"Midway here I realized I wouldn't be able to fit two bodies in the back of my car. I went back to Matt's."

Bonnie stared at her, looking worried she might have spilled the beans.

"I didn't say anything. Actually, I didn't even ask him I if could borrow his truck."

"You stole it?"

"I didn't know what to say, I didn't want to lie and lately he's becoming as nosy as my mother used to be. It's a cop thing," Caroline said fondly, brushing it off, peering between Bonnie and the two bodies at her feet.

"Is he—" she began inquisitively, spotting Kai to Bonnie's right, her brows drawing together in notable alarm.

Bonnie faintly shook her head, all too aware of what she was asking.

"Would you two stop gossiping and help me up?" Damon called. "I can hardly concentrate. I have a nemesis in need of murdering and a snoozing girlfriend to get back to."

Bonnie signaled Caroline to help Damon to the truck, motioning that she'd explain later. Caroline nodded and turned her attention Damon. "You reek. Did you change cologne or something?" Bonnie heard her comment in that zero filter way of hers as the two stumbled away, neither looking back. "What is that?"

"Trust me, Blondie. You don't want to know," Damon responded, a pain-filled groan escaping his lips, followed by Caroline's curse and a girlish gasp of horror as he unintentionally revealed the extent of his injury. That was a memory Bonnie wished she was spared and knew would haunt her till her dying day.

Bonnie reset the alarm on her phone two minutes before it would go off for half an hour, pocketed it and crouched beside Kai.

"Phasmatus confractus," she said, his body jerking from the invisible assault as she broke his neck afresh.

Caroline returned a few minutes later, probing Bonnie for answers, refusing to pick Kai up until she got any. Bonnie decided to be honest from the get go, explaining what happened over the last hour or two, what he shared with her and what she now felt she needed to do. Damon, Bonnie was convinced, was too weak to hear it, leaving them a little time for privacy.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? You didn't see what he did at the wedding, Bonnie. You weren't there. You didn't hear their screams. You didn't see Jo."

"I know that," she said, speculating what would have happened if she witnessed his sister's murder, too. Would they be here now? Would she be planning to help him recover? She doubted it. "But only a week ago you and Stefan both sent dozens upon dozens of people to casualty and the morgue."

Caroline stiffened, looking uncomfortable at the reminder and as if she might cry.

Bonnie took a step toward her and touched her arm soothingly, cushioning the excessive blow and letting her know she didn't hate her. Bonnie didn't. "You lost your mother," she said in understanding, rubbing at her arm, knowing they hadn't quite had the chance to talk about it and that Caroline desperately needed to, despite what she said. "If I were in your position, if I had the ability to turn my emotions off," Bonnie said, evoking to memory the crushing loss she had experienced when the last of her family was cruelly snatched from her, "I probably would have turned it off too. And I did." She glanced down at Kai's lifeless features before meeting Care's eyes again. "The only difference is that told myself I was helping my friends by preempting a war, that wanting Kai gone stemmed no further than being incapable of dealing with real life again. He begged me for a second chance, one I was too blinded by hatred and fear to see and—" She swallowed, overcome by grief, feeling herself tear up and weariness taking a firm hold of her soul. She could do with a very long rest. "And my friends and his family paid for it."

Caroline opened her mouth to censure what Bonnie was saying – to make it okay.

Bonnie cut her off. "What happened to Elena is as much my fault as it is his. And I'll never see her again. Not alive anyway. I'm not saying he's a good guy or that what Kai did is acceptable, it's not. But there is something inside of him, something frighteningly human that makes me believe he is far more than the monster he's come to depend on. He deserves a chance."

Whether or not Kai took the opportunity was up to him. There was more that needed to be said, more that seemed to ooze between the two of the girls unspoken, but neither of them cared to get into that now. It wasn't the time.

"So where are we holding him?" Caroline enquired, supporting Bonnie without further question and as she always did, reaching down to pick him up off the ground. "You know he has crazy magic. That he literally squeezed everyone's skull at the same time and that even now, I am pretty sure my ears are still ringing."

"Yeah, that is a problem," Bonnie answered as she walked alongside Care. "But if my mother's taught me a thing or two it's that there are remedies to negate a witch's a power. At least for a little while."

"Which brings us back to my previous question? Where. To?"

Caroline grunted softly as she set Kai down on the Salvatores' cellar floor, tying his hands and feet with readily soaked vervain rope, paying no mind to circulation, her hands adorned in a pair of protective yellow kitchen gloves. "You know this isn't going to hold him, right?"

"That's why I'm going to need you to go shopping," Bonnie answered, producing a pen she snagged off the inside table.

"And I don't suppose you mean for clothes?" Caroline retorted, breaking the tension and sounding hopeful. Bonnie could see she was as tired, that everything that happened today was steadily closing in on her.

"Maybe once we're over villainy detox one-o-one."

Caroline cracked a smile and extended her arms. Bonnie wrote a quick list on the back of each hand, making sure it was clear and that she could read what Bonnie needed.

Bonnie snapped Kai's neck a third time, hopeful that, once the next time her alarm went off, everything she needed would be prepared, spells would be cast and he'd be locked down indefinitely. She reset my alarm, collected two bags of blood from the freezer, and headed upstairs behind Caroline to tend to Damon who was out cold on the parlor floor in front of the unlit fireplace.

Bonnie sniffed the air as she stepped inside the parlor, identifying another smell, something she picked on—despite the many different soil samples all over her—and immediately recognized as smoke. Caroline seemed to identify it, too. They had been so consumed by what they were doing before that they hardly gave it a second thought. Bonnie glanced at the fireplace, taking note that it wasn't lit, and followed Caroline as she dashed upstairs.

"Caroline!" she called in a panic, dropping the blood bags to the nearest flat surface, charging after her as fast she could. It was then that she saw smoke and brilliant flame licking its way up the corridor.

"Oh, god! Fire!" she yelled needlessly, voicing what both of them now knew. Caroline took off once more. Bonnie's head was reeling, spiraling for a means to calm things down.

Caroline returned with a bucket. "I couldn't find a fire hydrant. Can you believe these two idiots don't own one of the most important thin—"

Bonnie grabbed her wrist, water from the bucket sloshing over the rim onto the hardwood floor. Her eyes closed to concentrate on dousing the flames, drawing the air from the room around them and away as though it never existed. But it did, and the damage to Damon's personal belongings was extensive. He wouldn't be happy.

"Alright then," Caroline said once they made certain the flames were well and truly doused, the still full bucket of water set down outside Damon's ruined bedroom. "I'll go get started on the shopping."

With that, she was gone.

When Bonnie returned to the cellar half an hour later and the final alarm went off, the barrier spell was in place and no one other than herself and Caroline were able to enter the basement. Bonnie thrust a needle into Kai's arm – a potion that had been used on her more than once by her mother and she took upon herself to condense specifically for Kai. She only hoped it worked, not having tried it on herself.

All that was left to do now was wait for him to wake up.

Caroline had left to go check on Elena while Damon recovered upstairs, passed out on one of the parlor couches—where they'd finally moved him—his belly stitched closed to help speed things along. Neither of them having enjoyed that particular process. He'd even fed a little.

Bonnie sat herself down on the small cot behind Kai, her back resting against the cool wall, legs extended in front of her while she waited. She didn't want him to wake up alone or to have the chance to think that Bonnie simply traded one prison for yet another.


	10. Chapter 10

It was as dark as in a hell pit in that cave. It smelled of faint decay and dampness, and his uneven footfalls echoed around as though Kai was trying to hammer his way through a wall instead of limping. And damn, it hurt to walk. Every step sent a lightning of pain from each stab wound to zap through his body, making it harder to keep his breathing in order. The lantern did little to light the way and only made a creepy shadow out of him to stalk across the walls and ground.

His shirt clung to his back soaked in blood, so did the jeans leg where Bonnie's knife had struck next. Kai was torn between a bitter feeling of irony, as though he knew she would do something like that, and hurt, profoundly deep and encompassing. She didn't even make an effort to truly listen to him, not once. Not fucking once.

He failed to notice he was in a room rather than a cave before he ran into something solid with his hip and groaned a curse. It was a table, Kai saw with growing wonder. And when he limped around it and carried his pathetic lantern to the right, an ashen face jumped out of the dark. Kai's heart stopped, and for the next terrifying second he thought it wouldn't restart. It did, and Kai took a better look.

The thing's skin was wrinkly and grey, veins dark and saturated under it. There were other figures outlined by the shadows; they were sitting in a semi-circle.

 _What are they, mummies?_

Kai scrutinized the first one, momentarily forgetting his pains as curiosity took over. "What the hell are you…" he murmured, and the mummy's eyes snapped open.

The world tumbled over around and under Kai, and he heard his own cry before a bolt of pain ripped into his neck and leaked further through his shoulder and arm and chest, swift like quicksilver. The mummy's eyes – colorless and dead – flashed on his mind's screen as he jerked…

There was a strangled groan Kai sluggishly recognized as his as he stirred and winced. His neck was nagging as if he had been sleeping with it bent in the wrong way for a day or two. His whole body was stiff and sore, especially the right side he was lying on. He couldn't feel his hands as though he no longer had them, but his wrists screamed in pain. The poorly lit room slowly came into vision, blurry but familiar. The thick stench of smoke was the biggest clue Kai would have smiled at if not for the cough that tightened his throat.

He smelled _her_ , too.

Bonnie was busy with her phone, scrolling through section after section of random newsfeed tweets, attempting to take her mind off things for a while, when a groan filled the air. She glanced down at the figure before her on the floor, locked her phone, and swung her legs off the cot.

"Though I do love that trick," Kai said in a husky voice that sold out his horrible thirst, "it really sucks you did it. I thought we were talking! But never mind." He rolled onto his back, wincing as the burning in his wrists neared the teeth-grinding level, and looked at Bonnie with a weary, dry amusement. "Let me guess: I'm still alive because you wanna force me to undo the spell on you and Elena. I really can't – not even sorry to disappoint you on that." He thought of tearing the ropes, but there was no familiar surge of magical energy. There was something wrong with him, and he did feel much weaker than he normally would. A lazy smirk of wicked knowing touched the corners of his mouth as he locked his eyes on hers. "I see you took precautions. I'm a little impressed, you brave little witchling. It might help for a few minutes, all right. Don't waste them, for they can become your last."

"The safety measures weren't my first choice, but with your newfound feeding habits and desire to rip my friends' throats out, it makes it hard to trust you," Bonnie responded, sliding off the cot, squatting beside him to take a hold of his shoulder, easing the pressure off his bound arms to help him into a sitting position. The first step in signifying her means for truce. She released his shoulder once she was sure he was good, and walked out of the cell to retrieve a blood pack.

Kai shifted a bit towards the wall and leaned back against it, taking a small moment to assess his aches and control his breathing, taking a deeper one in and releasing a longer one out. The smoke ate at his airways, adding to the hunger dry-out.

Slowly unwinding the plastic tube around it to act as a makeshift straw, Bonnie crouched before him. "Thirsty?"

Kai gave her a long searching look, the smallest of curious smiles playing over his mouth. He couldn't decide whether she was really that confident or really that stupid. And it bugged him, like a mosquito's high-pitched whining somewhere in the same room with him would. Vervain on his ropes didn't please him, either, and he needed blood to fix things he didn't like. He opted for a nod, never taking his probing eyes off her.

Bonnie held his gaze for as long as was necessary for him to trust that she wasn't trying to wangle an angle, not one that was a detriment to either of them, anyway, otherwise she would have killed him, right? Just like he could have killed her a couple of dozens' times tonight. A light smile played upon her mouth at his approving nod; she guided the plastic to his parted lips without hesitation, trusting that he wasn't stupid enough to bite her and that maybe he didn't want to. Who knew with this guy? Bonnie kept a firm hold on the blood pack, letting him feed at his leisure or at least until he'd managed enough to feel more settled.

Kai's lips parted obediently as she offered him the blood and helping the plastic tube between them. It was too cold and so much different from the live and warm kind you got directly from the vein, but, for that moment, it was a liquid ambrosia that coated his sore throat and muffled the ache. He had three quarters of the pack down when Damon's voice called for Bonnie from somewhere outside the cell – Kai figured Salvatore couldn't even get down the stairs, and it made him smile a little. Bonnie didn't trust them around each other and was right, since Damon didn't have it in him to think before he acted. Kai, however, felt no fixation on killing him unless provoked. Not when Damon's plans for the next hundred years or so included pining after an eternally snoozing girl.

"Bonnie?!" Damon yelled, hovering at the door and in front of the barrier she had cast. "Bonnie, what the hell?!"

Bonnie knew that, as soon as he was conscious and smelt the smoke in the air, there would be severe damage control. She cringed and involuntarily made to remove the plastic 'straw' from Kai's mouth.

"Excuse a second," she said as if they were having a civil everyday conversation, leisurely walked out the cell, leaving the door open to purposely let Kai know he wasn't a prisoner – at least not in the bars sense.

Kai surveyed the open door, wondering once more what her intentions might be. Confidence and ignorance looked very alike at times.

"What the hell are you doing?" Damon raged. "Why can't I get down—"

"What's wrong?" Bonnie asked, ignoring his blazing blue eyes and questions.

"What do you mean what's wrong? My gut was slashed open, there is smoke in the house and—"

"Have you been upstairs?" she chipped in, once again cutting short his mention of the basement and the barrier spell – she didn't want that revealed too soon.

He frowned, looking peeved. "Upstairs?" he echoed, his right hand clutching an empty blood pack, clearly wanting more and wrestling with his next plan of action: Bonnie, the pack, or the looming mystery of what lay in wait upstairs.

"Your room," Bonnie added to help speed along his indecision, his eyes widening with fear and what she knew would be rage by the time he saw his bed, books and bathroom.

He took off without a word, leaving her to stare after him for a second or two and hear as he released a pent-up roar of distress like an injured animal.

Kai listened half-heartedly while most of his attention coursed through his system like an intelligent computer scanning program in search of flaws and running diagnostics. The blood was gradually doing its job and he could feel the charges of renewed energy collecting in his muscles and cells, smoothening the soreness away. Kai pulled his legs to his chest and slid the loop of his arms up along them, ending up with his tied hands on his lap. The hands resembled those of a corpse with the blood flow cut off by the ropes; his skin around the wrists burnt and bloody. He closed his eyes, concentrating, assessing his resources. He could sense it more distinctly now – whatever Bonnie injected him with to bind his magic. Kai strained his bound hands as if intending to tear the ropes apart, wincing at the pain bursting across the damaged skin and saturating the flesh beneath. Blood oozed, soaking the ropes and eventually dripping to the floor while he sat with his eyes closed, guiding the foul potion out of his system.

Bonnie traipsed back downstairs and into the cell again, knowing Damon would be away a couple more minutes and that priority one of his was trying to see what survived the unexpected fire. "I'm guessing the fire was you?"

He looked at her and simpered. "Probably." Then added, "Fraktus," under his breath, parting his feet and hands once the ropes ripped and flew sideways in shreds as though he tore them with a flourish of a Hulk.

Bonnie gasped and automatically stepped back as he tore free of his ropes. How the hell did he even do that? She swallowed, taking another step back, rapidly weighing up her options, trying to decide whether or not she should make a run for the basement stairs or if she should stay. Running would be the smart thing to do—especially in light of his earlier threat—but it was also the most efficient way of provoking him to attack her, or red-flagging her detoxing plans.

Kai hissed softly, rubbing at his healing wrists, and gave her a faint smile. "That's much better. Now tell me, Bons: do you ever think your plans through thoroughly or just go with the flow and thus screw up every time?" He meticulously registered every spark of fear and mild panic that blinked across her face once she saw the ropes fly off his ankles and wrists. She fell back a few steps and stopped just behind the threshold of the cell, her fingers unwittingly tightening on his unfinished blood pack. She made a huge effort to contain her emotions and appear cool, and he found himself liking that about her yet again.

"I find the flow works a lot more efficiently," Bonnie responded, having thought that this would be a bit easier, that vervain ropes and a magic nuke would be the thing needed to put him on time-out for at least an hour. "Especially in this case. Otherwise, I probably would have foregone the illusion and staked you while you were out cold." She beckoned to the open canister of salt sitting at the wall in the corridor. It tipped over, salt crawling across the floor like white ants within seconds, lining the entranceway of the cell like dutiful little soldiers in need of a singular word to seal him in. Bonnie only hoped it wouldn't be necessary and that a bluff would be enough.

Kai squinted pensively, thinking about it. Illusion, she said. He let on a slow smile of a dawning recognition as some pieces of this puzzle crawled towards each other to create a picture in his mind. She pulled off an illusion of staking him for some reason – which he was yet to find since he was hardly a total secret sitting in the Salvatores' house, of all places.

Her gaze flicked down, and as his followed, Kai saw a white line of salt crawling along the doorstep. He nearly spilled a laugh over it, but restrained it instead, raising a mock reprimanding stare to meet hers. In an instant, he was hovering before her, his hands propped on the doorframe, the tops of his boots a hair shy of the salt border.

Bonnie locked her gaze upon his, her heart skipping a transitory beat as he appeared so close. Too close. He'd been doing that particular trick long before he even became a vampire – it unnerved her. She forced herself to not look down, to not break eye contact and broadcast her alarm – though, by now and with all his fancy new senses in place, it was only a matter of time before he recognized it. Unless he already did.

Kai was still smiling his faint, inscrutable smile, regarding her. "Why didn't you stake me for real? Did my little revelation shock you into pity? That'd be funny given how late the reaction is for this party. Haven't I said that? I think I did. And I think you're not as good at listening as you are when it's Damon yapping about his sorrows and failures."

"I wouldn't call it pity as much as it is enlightenment," she said in a calm voice, surprisingly good at maintaining that confident air while her pulse and scent gave out a different kind of vibes. "As for Damon, he's had his trials. All of which he formerly failed miserably, time and time again. But he's changed, he's trying to be better and less a psycho killer. At least to some degree and as far as I was aware." She paused briefly as if revising it in her mind. "He's a work in progress," she concluded. "Like you."

Kai screwed up his eyes a little in an automatic expression of ironic distrust, registered her heartbeat quickening a notch. It usually happened to people who ventured a phrase unsure of the other person's reaction and expecting the worst. It made him ponder whether she was trying to lie to him again.

"The only difference is, he's stopped fighting it, stopped trying to blame the world and has taken a little responsibility for his actions. Like me. I've made mistakes. And I could be making one right now. Probably my second biggest this month." There was a note of morose humor in her voice, the awareness that if he wanted to follow through with his threat, it would take no more than a second and a certified flick of a wrist to do so.

Kai cracked a wider smile that said she might be on point here.

"Yet, for some reason, I don't believe that I am," she continued. "If anything, your speech tonight has made me realize that. I know that it sounds hollow coming from me now, that you believe I'm trying to pacify you for some substantial gain." She thought of how a few weeks ago he begged her to trust him, to believe he'd changed overnight, and how she refused to take in an idea so unfathomable. Their roles seemed ironically switched. "But I'm going to need you to take a leap of faith and trust that I'm not and that unlike who you were two weeks ago, forgiveness doesn't come easy to me. I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone, I'm trying—" she searched for a better word, went for it: "I want to help you."

For a lengthy moment, they merely stared at each other – Kai with a curious attention and Bonnie with a wary one.

Silence stretched for what felt like an eternity for Bonnie, and his face was absent of even a hint of his thinking or if she managed to break through his uncompromising defenses. She chose to take it as a good sign. A negligible second of optimism that rushed through her, positivity he eradicated within moments as if to punish her for it. She should have been ready for it, she should have uttered the word before he struck, but there had been no time.

Kai gave a soft hem of acknowledgment and shared a sardonic look with her before his hand darted forth like a striking viper and yanked her back to his cell by the throat. The blood pack dropped on the floor like a dead piece of meat; the salt line was swept across the floor by her feet. Kai had her pinned to the wall, much like in the barn earlier that night, before a gasp escaped her mouth. Heat of magic warmed up his palm, seeping from her skin through his before she could spit a spell out; he leaned in to her as though for a kiss, but not quite. A smile so amiable formed on his face it was out of place in their current roles. Kai could see her grimace at the ache of his siphoning, probably cursing herself for stupidity of trusting she was safe with him.

"God, you're so plucky, Banzai, it beats me how Damon stays immune to a turn-on like that."

Bonnie's mouth fell open faintly, restrained gasp after aching gasp tumbling from her lips, eyelids fluttering, threatening to close as a means to ward off the blaze of magic being pilfered from her body and to do away with his smiling face.

Kai's smile widened a tad, releasing a pleased hem, then his eyes took on a keener look relying it was a random remark in an actual talk of business. "Help implies I've asked for it, Bonsy. That there's something I want or desire, while, to be honest, right now, I come to realize there's hardly anything I want or desire. I think I just… am, pretty much. Like a force of nature. And a force of nature doesn't want. I got all I wanted, so what is it that you, little presumptuous witchling, wanna help me with? Do enlighten me in your turn." Nudged by a sudden playful curiosity, Kai released her gently to see what she was going to do. The borrowed magic hummed in the fibers of his body like electricity in high-voltage wires. It quickened his own pulse, and added a subtle touch of arousal.

Bonnie stayed rooted where she was when he let her go, handling her with far more care than he started off with. She was angry, every square inch of her body stinging with defeat, longing to punch him out of mere need for justice. She exhaled through her nose, taking a few seconds to calm down, to remember that he was doing this on purpose and that this was as nasty a test as any. She should have expected it. And a part of her did.

She chuckled, a sound that held little mirth and came across as more of a scoff, and lifted a hand to the phantom imprint left behind by his unexpected siphoning. "Presumptuous?" she echoed. "Maybe. But it's been my experience that those that fear rejection or think themselves beyond repair seldom ask for help, Kai. You know why? Because they've been doing it their whole lives and all they know is to run. They're ashamed of facing themselves, petrified of confronting what they've done to cope and scared to feel anything remotely real because they don't know what to do with it. You've been seeking recognition from your family for eighteen years. Forty, _if_ we really want to dive into it. You think that feeling up and poofs out of existence because they're dead? It doesn't. And it's only going to get harder for you from here. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but down the line, another eighteen years for now, you're still not going to have gotten what you wanted, you'll still just be the assumed abomination his family up and scratched from existence. Is that who you want to be known as for the rest of your _very_ long life?" She didn't believe so, not after what he'd shared and the hurt that clearly started all of this. He wanted to belong, she was sure.

Her speech put a damper on that playful spark twinkling in Kai, fueled by her closeness and the magic he took, and now there was an acrimonious frustration like a drop of poison spreading its deadly strings through the clear waters of the well. She was trying to read him and never quite hit it, and while she refused to stop poking around, it was getting to a point of irritation that bordered with ire.

"Answer me this," she added, scrutinizing him, "if you were given the chance, if you by some means possessed the power to go back, to hold off from stabbing your sister in the gut and starting world war three. Would you? Or would you simply do it all over again?"

A somewhat morose smile of resignation tugged at Kai's mouth as the same bile-bitter feeling rose from within like a bloated corpse rises up from the bottom of the river. She was stubbornly pulling at the strings he had deliberately cut because all they did was give him more trouble instead of the liberation he sought.

Kai looked at her like one would look at a child that struggles with understanding and yet demands answers to questions she's not supposed to worry about at this age. "Would I kill my family if I had a chance to change it? I would, in a heartbeat."

Bonnie stared at him in wonder and with something like a flicker of disenchantment, incapable of processing how quickly he tore her hope to shreds.

"Because it's always been like that between me and them: they never stopped trying to put me away. They not just intended to rob me of my birthright, but of my life as well, and I couldn't let them. It was always me or them, Bonnie. And like it happens in the wilderness of nature, the strongest survives. I chose to be that, and it is my responsibility – I'm fully aware of it and state it here and now: it was indeed my choice to survive them. Jo – she was carrying another threat to my powers in her, and I couldn't let them live."

It's not that Bonnie anticipated he would become a turncoat or start handing out food parcels at a shelter or adopt stray puppies from the SPCA. She wasn't trying to make him good, she didn't hold that power, and frankly, she didn't want that kind of responsibility. What she did need and sought was a true hint of remorse in Kai. She wanted to know that after all the horror they bore tonight and over the last few months wasn't for nothing, and wouldn't end up with any more people dead.

Kai squinted cunningly as though warning of a major hint to come. "Not after you left me in nineteen-o-three, a bloody breakfast for a bunch of desiccated heretics. Funny enough, it even made me think my own prison wasn't so bad, after all – and that's the biggest blasphemy ever, I tell ya. I left her in peace after she gave me her powers. And I guess I could've figured out a way to solve that problem with her twins, but then – plot twist! – I end up in a prison world to feed a pack of bloodsuckers not all of which knew how to be gentle."

Her heart seemed to stop, that nauseating feeling returning at full force, tears burning behind her eyes for a second. She forced herself to blink away the swelling anguish, to stop it dead in its tracks before it fully manifested or coursed down my cheeks. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of winning – not again, not in this department. It didn't matter how many times tonight Kai spitefully attempted to make it clear that Bonnie was as accountable for the death of Jo's family – it would never stop hurting her. She knew that as well as that the sky was blue. And in this moment, she, too, wished she never made it out of that prison world, that she was still back there and this was another of the many frightening nightmares she invented for herself.

In a fracture of a second, Kai had her in the same grip, his palm heating up with her magic readily flowing in. Her fingers dug in his wrist, desperate to remove his vice grip and cut short by his siphoning power. This was as efficient as any neck snap in her book.

He smiled a smile of a cat playing with a mouse. It was coming back again, the arousal of power. "You wanna know if I'm sorry? I was very damn sorry when I told you so – and I did many times. You didn't listen. And now we both can be sorry – you for not listening, I for killing my sister who could have been the only one of them I actually felt anything for, because being twins has its effect even on a senseless bastards like me – and it won't change anything. I did what I did because I wanted to do it, because I chose to do it after things that happened to me. It's not the blame you think I put on others – those are simple, dry facts that brought me to where I am now. And right now, it's too late to tell me how I crave for understanding of my family – I killed them because I stopped wanting it a long time ago. I'm not scared to feel what's real – there's just nothing worth feeling."

Bonnie's mind kept working, tossing more into the guilt pile. Unlike Damon, who made shitty life choices and continued to make them when things weren't going a particular way or, more importantly, his way, Kai, for even a second, had tried to stay on track, to give the merge a refined attempt. And yes, he'd been manipulative, pushy and his unpredictable self in his efforts, but not once in the two days that Bonnie mingled with him had he possessed the same sneer or grade of chaos in his eyes. She cynically believed it was an act—and now the roles were reversed, and this time Kai didn't care to see it anymore since that kind of happiness and self-acceptance had been snatched from him too many times. Years of continual conditioning provided by his family and himself. And now, her.

He yanked her from the wall to him, her back lined up with his front as he held her to him with an arm across her chest, his cheek against her temple. Kai simpered pensively as if a sudden idea came into his head, and traced a finger of his free hand down the side of her neck. He saw the vein pulsing rapidly, and began getting hard. "Except for the only real thing a vampire can feel… that you can still give me."

Bonnie's eyes widened at the implication, preoccupied by his hard-on and misleadingly gentle attention provided by his touches. An uncontrolled gasp spilled from her lips in anticipation of his bite, evoking to memory how viciously Damon ripped into her neck all those years ago. She squeezed her eyes shut, endeavoring to blot out the image, and forced herself to relax, to accept that there was nothing she could do to prevent it – and that this was it.

Eyes closing, Kai nuzzled into her skin, taking in that scent that made him waver on the edge of self-control, and skimmed his parted lips over the beating vein, testing himself. He wanted it so badly it scared him deep down. And it also excited him too much to step back. Now he could no longer backtrack, and that thought coaxed his fangs to elongate and his mouth water, like an approval from beyond reason. Vaguely, Kai was aware how his own heart hammered away against her shoulder-blade, as frantic as hers but for all the different reasons. He snaked his other arm around her waist, tender as a lover before planting a kiss, and scraped his teeth against her skin, as if teasing himself. A bead of crimson swelled on the small scratch and he picked it up with the tip of his tongue.

"You're gonna be more than I even expected," he whispered against her neck. "Exquisite."


	11. Chapter 11

When Kai didn't immediately sink his teeth in and get to it, Bonnie exhaled shakily, aching to tell him to stop fucking with her. Her eyes snapped open as a second arm snaked around her waist, his lips persistent in their torturous devotion, blunt teeth scratching along sensitive skin, a soft sound of disquiet escaping her lips.

"You're gonna be more than I even expected," he murmured. "Exquisite."

"I'm not so sure," Bonnie said in a taunting matter, finding her voice at long last, her nails digging into his forearm through the denim sleeve of his jacket in a bruising clasp as if she needed to hold on in case she were to float away or something. "I've been known to be pretty bitter."

"I've been known to have a wicked taste." Kai dabbed his tongue on another bead of blood growing on her scratch, and the urge to tuck into her flesh and have a full swallow or ten became unbearable, but he still held himself back like a rider trying to keep his tempered stallion from bolting. He literally felt the sores on the palms of his restraint where the stallion's reins scraped the skin off. If he could stop and think of why he was still holding back, Kai would have had no answer. He felt another tremble in her, her breath labored, her heart racing – and all of it was like a candle set under the strained rope of his need to stay in control.

Her body's reactions consumed him so much he almost missed the swift whiplash of air responding to a vampire dashing to them to attack. Kai caught Caroline in midair, an inch short of her goal that was his spine, and threw her backwards. She propelled through the cell's doorway into the wall and dropped with a grunt.

"Saepio," he whispered, waving a hand at the door.

Caroline rushed back the same second, and bumped against the invisible barrier sealing the cell closed. Panic and wrath mingled on her face riddled with dark veins under her bloodshot eyes, her teeth bared as she hissed and rapped her fists against what looked like nothing but air.

Bonnie stared in unspoken disbelief. Where Klaus had been demoralizing and ruthless with his attacks, Kai was breathtaking and daunting, exuding power that far outweighed the notorious hybrid and anything she'd ever touched. Caroline appeared once more to test the theory, bouncing off the barrier, her face awash with uncontrolled emotion.

Kai smiled and returned his full attention to Bonnie shivering in his embrace. He replaced his arm around her waist, drawing her focus away from the blonde. "Scared of pain, aren't you?" he mused, and licked off another drop of blood on her skin. "In fact, we never live without pain – there's always a net of tiny little pains here and there in our bodies that actually make us feel at all. So we know we're alive. Strange, isn't it? Or twisted, like so many things in life and nature are. There are so many nervous endings in your neck, Bonsy. And they all run through your whole body, to every corner of it, because it's a web. It's why your neck is an erogenous zone – pain and pleasure have too fine a line between them. Too fine a line…"

Bonnie could already imagine his sharpened teeth locking on her throat and the flash of pain that would follow as he tore through flesh and zeroed in on the vein like a rabid animal. She wasn't looking forward to it. Yet another—lesser—part of her couldn't help but wonder if it would be different. His tone sounded far too seductive to her ears, a technique that, for once, didn't go amiss and strangely settled her nerves as he drew her close, permitting a hint of decipherable arousal to make itself known to her.

The anticipation was scorching his veins and gums; Kai let his fangs sharpen once more, his eyes closing as he felt her jugular beating under his lips like a tiny scared bird. He laved it with his tongue, unconsciously pulling her body closer to his as his teeth gingerly cut into her skin. She gave a moan, or it was his own – he no longer could tell. Her flavor blazed through his senses, flooding, much like Noah's Flood overran the earth in the beginning of times.

Bonnie gasped with the expectance of agony, a response that swiftly transformed into a startling moan, one that echoed his own pleasure. Gratification that transformed into numbness, dizziness and lethargy far too quickly, weakening the hold she had on his jacket, her head lolling sideward, her eyes threatening to close.

He drew a swallow after swallow, relishing in the way it ignited his every nerve, making them tingle and vibrate as if to a tune too high to catch by ear. It became an ageless moment where nothing else existed and it was perfect. The best way a world could be.

Bonnie's heart gave an uneven beat, staggered, and began to slow. And the rush of sensual anticipation Kai would have normally wanted pulled him back from the ninth cloud. He withdrew, as gingerly, and licked his lips. He was trembling, both inside and out, and it took him a second to regain a shred of awareness and see that Bonnie was leaning into him heavier than before; her eyes at half-mast. She was taking shallow breaths.

Kai shifted her in his arms to face him, an arm around her waist and a hand to support her head upright. Her eyes met his drowsily. "This is the moment where I would've asked you if you wanted to live. I shan't for I know the answer."

He kissed her, coaxing her sluggish lips open with his, and slipped his bitten tongue between her teeth.

Before Bonnie could comprehend what he was talking about or could think to be frightened, his warm mouth was on hers like a soothing balm, his tongue probing against slightly parted lips, seeking entrance, all of which she inevitably permitted. Her eyes fluttered closed treacherously to involuntarily savor the acquainted coppery taste and the kiss itself for a second or two.

Her heartrate gave Kai the clue his blood worked, and he released her slowly and fell back two steps, the smallest of smiles shimmering over his mouth – as if Bonnie and he were now sharing a secret no one else could perceive.

Bonnie opened her eyes as his arms fell away from her waist, taking with it the stability provided by his chest, her legs still weak, barely holding her upright as the exchange of blood began to repair the damage he'd caused. When her eyes steadied on his, registering the small indecipherable smile on his lips (one, she thought, looked strangely accepting), Kai waved a hand at the door.

Caroline stormed in like a meteor, and then the bright flash of pain in his neck stole Bonnie's image away.

Bonnie faltered, confused for a minute, and flinched as Kai's body crumbled to the floor at her feet. Caroline towered over him like a pit bull foaming at the mouth. She wasted no time, swiftly biting into her wrist, hardly sparing Bonnie a chance to refute her offer, one hand behind Bonnie's head, the other spoon-feeding more of the healing blood into her friend's system. Bonnie gasped when at last Caroline allowed her the chance to pull away, and lifted a hand to her chest to slow her racing heart and to catch her breath.

"Are you okay?" Caroline asked after a beat, her voice shaking despite her confident stride, her body trembling with what looked to be excessive rage or a severe chill.

"I'm fine," Bonnie replied, fingers probing at the area the wound should have been, shuddering briefly as she recalled the experience to memory.

"Good," Caroline said, being oddly monosyllabic, her hand swiftly meeting Bonnie's cheek with a harsh and unexpected smack.

Bonnie gasped in response, automatically raising a hand to soothe her stinging cheek.

"What the hell, Bonnie?!" Caroline spat before Bonnie could think to ask her the very same question. "I thought you said you had this covered." She let go of Bennett as abruptly and crouched over Kai. Her right hand—Bonnie realized almost too late—was already buried in his chest.

"Caroline! No!" Bonnie yelled, reading her noxious objective. Caroline's eyes snapped to her, like a ferocious lion being interrupted during a vigorous meal, looking as dazed and shook up as Bonnie felt. "Caroline! Stop!"

"Stop?" she mimicked incredulously, making no move to remove her hand from his chest, her lips turning into an ugly line of discontent. "Stop? Stop?! Bonnie, he tried to kill you!" She sounded bitter and odious. Bonnie had never seen Caroline like this, never seen such voraciousness in her before. "Whatever you think you're doing is not working, you're—," she drifted off as if too scared to finish the sentence, her voice trembling slightly. She squeezed at his heart, testing its durability, as if she expected it to be made of steel or stone.

"Caroline…" Bonnie pleaded, dropping to her knees on the other side of Kai's motionless body, enclosing a hand around Caroline's trembling wrist, unmindful of the blood that coated her fair skin. "Please don't. Please—"

"Please?!" Caroline hissed, withdrawing her hand from his chest sharply, bone and other bits crunching.

Bonnie stiffened, pulse racing with momentary dread, settling only once she realized his heart wasn't sitting in Caroline's bloodied grip like a macabre trophy.

"Please? Listen to yourself!"

"I know—" Bonnie replied as the blonde jumped to her feet. She forced herself off the icy floor, too, seeing her friend's increasing distress as she headed for the cellar door. Bonnie took a step over Kai, trying to take a hold of her forearm to forestall her action and to reassure her that she, Bonnie, was fine, that she was healing, a mission she scarcely managed before the flat of her blonde friend's hand connected with her face.

Caroline's eyes widened, her expression as correspondingly dazed as Bonnie's. "I trusted you, I told you those ropes weren't strong enough to hold him and you reassured me they were!"

Bonnie stared at her, trying to figure out what she was trying to accuse her of and smarting from the sting on her face. Was Caroline implying Bonnie wanted Kai to attack her? And that Bonnie in some way set it up that way?

"I get what you're trying to do with Kai, I understand the guilt you must be feeling and how overwhelming tonight has been. But what happened at the wedding tonight is not your fault. You don't have to take _this_ —" Caroline gestured to Kai, "—upon yourself. You didn't know this would happen, you didn't know Kai would come back here and play Ted Bundy. You've been through a trauma, Bonnie. You've been back less than a week for Christ's sake! You're allowed to be weak."

Involuntary tears gathered in Bonnie's eyes, incapable of controlling the rush of emotion that spiraled to the surface. As if she hadn't done enough crying tonight.

"I know you feel responsible for what happened to Elena. I know you love her. And I do too. But, you can't keep doing this to yourself. You can't keep throwing your life as if you're some sacrificial lamb. I refuse to accept that, I refuse to support that." Caroline sounded both resolute and heartbroken. "I lost my mother, Bonnie," she said, intertwining their hands, pulling Bonnie close, holding onto her as if she were afraid Bonnie'd drift away or reject what she was saying. "I refuse to lose my sister. Not this way and not today."

Bonnie nodded in understanding and squeezed Caroline's hands, doing her best—for now—to reassure she wasn't going anywhere.

When Caroline released her and wordlessly drew back, they moved to sit beside each other on the floor, shoulder to shoulder, both lost in their respective worlds.

"Salt," Bonnie said after a lengthy silence, seeing the blonde frown with her eyes trained on her bloody hand. "I need salt," she clarified, yanking her gaze from Kai's stock-still figure.

"Right," Caroline said, wearily pushed off the ground, moving to exit the cell.

"Caroline," Bonnie called before she could get too far; the blonde head swiveling around to face her again. "What happened to your mother isn't your fault either, you know. You were trying to help her. You did the best you could." Elena told Bonnie about the experiment and Caroline's definitive goal. The result had been obvious. "I'm sure she knew that."

Caroline's lower lip trembled, a small smile tweaking at her lips as she turned away, leaving the room to go get more of the salt she'd bought earlier.

By the time Caroline returned, Bonnie had injected Kai with a weak dose of vervain and of the magic negating potion, diminishing what he'd stolen from her. She wasn't sure it would remain that way for long, but she hoped at least that the vervain would keep him tempered and from causing anymore chaos.

"Damon is pacing like a mad man up there. You didn't tell him about Kai?" Caroline extended the new salt packet to her.

"There wasn't time," Bonnie reasoned, moving to pour it across the open doorway, gesturing that Caroline retrieve the unfinished blood pack from the cell.

She did and tossed it onto the closed freezer. "What do you mean there wasn't time?"

"I mean—" Bonnie dropped the empty packet to the floor, picking up a rusty awl, wincing as she stabbed it into her palm. Caroline looked confused but didn't resist as the witch took her hand to repeat the process. "There wasn't time. I've been busy. And he's been recovering and then—"

"And then you got bit," Caroline clarified, wincing slightly.

"Exactly." Bonnie kept a hold on her hand, allowing their blood to drip onto the salt. "Sigillum anima," she said, watching as the crimson expanded and seeped into the grains, discoloring them, binding them to their blood, making it so that only Caroline and Bonnie would be able to open it up for him.

"Are you sure you want to keep doing this, Bonnie?"

Bennett threw aside the awl, picked up the empty salt pack off the floor, crumpling it in her hand, then took the half-finished blood pack off the freezer's lid and dropped it inside so that it wouldn't go to waste. "Yes," she answered, unsure of why, when she should have known better—he'd tried to convince her, not once, but three times—that he wasn't interested in changing his newfound course. Still, she refused to give up that easily. She gestured for the stairs, taking only a handful of steps before Caroline broke the silence.

"Do you feel something for him?" she asked at random, remembering something else she'd picked up on in the air during their feeding session, a scent she could still smell lingering on Bonnie's skin.

"What?" Bonnie asked with apparent disbelief. "No, of course not. He's—"

"It's just that…" Caroline cut in, for the first time in her life unsure if she should proceed or how to go about tending to this topic. "You know what, forget it. I just—I mean there hasn't been much time and we haven't spoken or caught up on this prison world thing."

"There isn't much to talk about." Bonnie tried to gauge the sheepish expression on her face.

"Bonnie," Caroline said, canting her head as though she could sense her friend closing off.

"Caroline," she hit back, flashing a light uncompromising smile. "I promise we'll talk. Just not tonight. I need to shower, I need to get rid of all this gunk—" gesturing to the black stains on her pants legs, the dried blood having glued them to her shins unpleasantly. "And I… I need to tend to Elena."

Caroline nodded, accepting the excuse, and started out of the basement.

Damon was already waiting, drink in hand. "Bonnie," he greeted, raising his glass in mock salute, briefly sharing a look with Caroline. "So good to see you again. I was beginning to grow worried that whatever has you secured in the basement might have swallowed you whole."

Straightaway Bonnie could tell he was being acerbic, that he hated being left out of the loop.

"Can we not do this right now?" she responded, casting a sidelong look at Caroline, trying to gauge how much she might have spilled.

The blonde smiled guiltily, and gently pried the plastic from Bonnie's fingers, giving the two of them a few minutes of privacy as she headed to the kitchen to throw it away.

"I have had a long night," Bonnie turned back to Damon, "that is far from over and before I continue with it, I'd like to try and rinse some of it away."

"And when would be the more appropriate time?" Damon countered, draining his glass in one swoop. "Tomorrow? An hour? Five minutes? You're going to have to clear it up for me, Bonbon." He stood, set his glass aside on the nearest flat surface, and strolled toward her. "I've never known you to run from a fight."

They both knew it would head there, that was the privilege of living with someone every waking moment of everyday for four months, and it permitted a certain understanding of how things would ultimately go.

"I'm not running, Damon," she said defensively, not at all feeling as though she had the energy or want to tackle this conversation right at this very minute. "I've reached a limit on pig-headedness tonight and I'm wore-out. There's a difference."

"Not in your world," he disputed.

She scoffed, gritted her teeth, and turned away from him to head for the stairs, gasping in surprise as she bumped into his brick wall of a chest. She hated when he did that.

"Things change," Bonnie said and slapped a hand to his torso, making a point of showing him how to put space between them by taking a judicious step back. "I am not as tolerating as I once was, have you not noticed?"

His eyes narrowed perceptibly, his nostrils flaring a bit, a hand lashing out like an unanticipated viper to grab a hold of her wrist. Bonnie winced, confused by his reaction and irritated as yanked her closer.

 _What the hell?!_

"Damon! Damon, let go of me!" She yanked back on her arm, pulling it free within seconds. He didn't fight her on it, in fact, she was certain—as she looked into that perceptible gaze of his now—that he was trying to sniff her. His face devoid of anything but what looked to be a serious suspicion.

Caroline appeared in the hallway, her eyes darting between the two of them with apprehension.

Bonnie took another step back, purposely walking around him while he stood trying to rattle his brain.

"Is that why he is down there?" Damon asked as Bonnie reached for the stilted railing, and took the first and second step, cutting short her escape.

Bonnie felt subjected to déjà vu. She stopped, knowing that if she didn't he'd make her, or worse – follow her into the bathroom. He could be obstinate like that when he wanted something. "What are you talking about now? What is your problem?"

"Kai," he said with stiff clarification, trying to measure her face for a reaction of some kind as he peered up at her. "I'm talking about Kai Parker. The murderous girlfriend linking siphon sucker. And it's not _my_ problem, it's OUR problem. Or did you forget that?"

"What are you trying to say, Damon?" she asked, withdrawing her hand from the railing to face him fully. She could sense he was getting to something, but in true Damon fashion he had to drag it out a little.

"He murdered Jo. He might as well have murdered Elena. Which begs the question: Why is he here?" He raised an introspective eyebrow, looking oddly like someone trying to piece together a puzzle. "Why is he in my basement?"

Bonnie darted a look over his shoulder to where Caroline stood watching and trying to judge whether or not she should step in. Bonnie inhaled, uncertain of how to answer that and to tell him what she was trying to do. Unlike Caroline, Damon wouldn't be supportive of her mission and considering what he'd been deprived of for the next hundred years, she imagined it would be a bitter pill to swallow. If he hadn't tried to kill her before, he sure as hell would now.

"Caroline didn't tell me," Damon pointed out, taking a wild guess as to the reason for her look. He tapped at the side of his nose, driving home a wordless point. "I put two and two together myself. The barrier, the fact that I can't hear what's going on down there. What I'm trying to understand is why you've taken such precautions." He took a step onto the stairwell, forcing her to take a step back, involuntarily ascending the stairs. "Why he isn't dead and why—" he grabbed a hold of the front of her shirt to prevent her escape, his pupils dilating a second, "—you suddenly seem to smell so appetizing."

"That's enough!" Caroline snapped, appearing beside them on the stairs, removing Damon's hand from Bonnie's top, swiftly shoving him into the railing.

Damon grunted with annoyance and staggered slightly but didn't lose his footing. He was pissed. And who could blame him after the night they all had?

"You two need a time-out."

Neither argued that point, or at least Bonnie wasn't; she didn't quite know how to address the subject with Damon. He'd never accept it or care to understand.

Caroline nodded towards upstairs, "Bonnie, go take your shower."

Bonnie glanced at the back of her blonde head, flicking her eyes to Damon who appeared to be simmering in uncharacteristic silence before proceeding down the stairs to go get himself another drink. Caroline followed.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she hissed, slapping his arm once they stepped into the parlor. "Just give her a break! She's also been attacked today, remember? And then ran around through the woods with you, saving Tyler – and YOU, by the way. She needs a moment to rest, she's not a vamp—"

"No, what the hell is wrong with you!" he snapped back, eyes blazing. "Since apparently you're the only one allowed down there – what the hell is wrong with you, Caroline? What the fuck were you thinking? He bit her, didn't he? And what, you just stood and watched it like a porn flick or something?"

Caroline's delicate mouth formed an O of disgusted, dismayed astonishment; she watched him as if what he had just uttered had to immediately crack the floor beneath his boots for hell to swallow him whole. Then she found her voice and advanced on him with such fury in her glare that Damon found himself backing away a step. "You have absolutely no right to say this to me, or think that about her. It's Bonnie! How your tongue doesn't fall out rotten for saying this!"

He winced irefully. "Oh stop it, I bet you smelled it sooner than I did. And – moreover – you got to see. So tell me, am I wrong about this? I actually wish to be."

Caroline's resolution wavered the tiniest bit in the depth of her eyes, almost black with wrath, and Damon noticed it and squinted imperceptibly with knowing. She pressed her lips together angrily. "He didn't harm her, and that's what matters."

"You didn't stop him, and that's what matters to me," he smirked darkly, jeering, and yet his eyes searched her face for answers. Then he took her wrist and raised her bloodied hand between them, shaking it once lightly in emphasis. "Or did you? Why too late? And why is this fucker's heart still intact if you did?"

She sighed, annoyed that she had to discuss it with Damon of all people while she was eager to ride Bonnie's back some more about the same. She tugged her hand free. "Look, just give her a little time to shower and change, and then take it up with her. I… I need to call Stefan now and let him know we're all alive, okay? Okay." She brushed past him and went to the kitchen.

Bonnie walked down the hall to Damon's room, wrinkling her nose with distaste as she stepped inside. She made a left into the walk-in closet, glad to see that the actual fire hadn't reached inside and the damage was mostly superficial. She wasted no time in picking out some fresh clothes. A jeans skirt slung over her left forearm, along with a leather belt since she was a size bigger than Bonnie, and her infamous maroon jersey. Bonnie exited his room and headed for the space she'd claimed as her own in 1994. It looked similar, expect that there wasn't even a hint of her in it, the bedspread having been updated and changed, along a light fixture here and there. She set the few things down, along with a pair of black knee-high boots, and brought the jersey to her nose, hoping to catch a whiff of Elena's comforting smell, irked to find that the smoke overrode it. Not only had they lost Elena, but all she owned was now destroyed, too, almost as if Kai had attempted to scratch her from existence entirely.

Or, at least, unintentionally.

Bonnie set the jersey down on top of her selected skirt, moving toward the dresser to take a towel from the bottom, a habit she was happy to find hadn't died out or changed over the years. She peeled off the shirt as she stepped into the bathroom, flipping on the light, seeing for the first time the extent of the damage to her jeans. It looked tie-dyed.

"Gross," she commented inaudibly as she headed over to the shower, turning on the water to let it warm up. She undid the button on her jeans, hesitating when, as she made to shuck off my shoes, she saw Damon seated on the closed toilet seat.

He was observing her, a drink in hand, looking as though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He grinned. Bonnie didn't like that grin, she'd seen that grin when he first showed up in Mystic Falls. She had hoped to never reacquaint herself with it again. She guessed, with Elena out of commission, the reason for her demise tucked away within his basement, out of reach, was having more of an effect on him that Bonnie would have liked.

"I'm not making you uncomfortable, am I?" he asked. "I mean, you've seen all there is to see. You remember, right? That's why we worked on the rules, why we put boundaries into place."

She made no answer, unconcerned with being half-naked in his presence, and stood staring, the steam from the hot water fogging up the large mirror, turning the place into a makeshift sauna.

He waited.

"I'm trying to help him, Damon. I'm trying to set things right."

"What is right?" he asked, staring at her as if he didn't truly see her.

"He deserves a chance."

"Are you hearing yourself right now?" he asked with a cold chuckle, echoing Caroline's earlier bafflement.

"I know it sounds crazy coming from me—"

"Crazy? No, crazy would be killing our only aforementioned means of escape without hesitation in nineteen-ninety-four. You remember that, too, don't you? _This_ is beyond my comprehension."

"I tried to kill him more than once, I tried to leave him behind," Bonnie stated, seeing the truth dawn in his blue eyes, his lips thinning. "Violence doesn't get me anywhere. Jo's dead, her family is dead. I should have trusted Kai when he came to me, I should've had faith that he could change. I made a mistake. I'm trying to correct it."

"You've cracked," Damon responded, in no way able to be sensitive and thinking she needed to know it, as if it explained everything. "You've lost it. There is no way anything good can come from this."

"The eternal cynic," she countered, walking over to him, snatching the bottle of bourbon from his hand. "Would it kill you to have a little faith in me? To, for once, support me without your backhanded commentary?"

"And what exactly is it that you want me to support, Bonbon? You playing witchy-wizard redeemer to a psycho?" he asked, suddenly eyeing her up and down, once again, deferring to that knowing look, as if a need to say something burned on his tongue. "My girl's on indefinite retreat in snooze land, and you're getting cozy with the perpetrator. Has he told you how to unlink the two of you? Have you even tired or—" he reached out to bring a hand to her neck, touching the noticeable patch of dried blood, the recognizable stain that brandished not even a hint of teeth marks. But he knew. "Were you too distracted while he scratched another itch?"

Bonnie flushed, powerless to stave off her reaction, offended and equally mortified.

"Four months is a long time, Bonnie, and you're a big girl with needs. I can smell it on you," he said as to confirm what she'd hoped he hadn't meant earlier, his eyes dipping to her bra and lower. "And I can assure you I'm quite familiar with that scent. However faint."

Bonnie shoved him toward the doorway, annoyed by his misplaced vulgarity and his misunderstanding of everything that happened. Trust him to put some kind of sexual spin on things.

"Fine. We'll continue this downstairs," he said, the humor fading from his face, replaced by fury and bottled irritation, the door closing behind him a few seconds later.

She exhaled deeply, waiting a moment to make sure Damon wasn't going to find a reason to come back, and locked the door, blearily shimmying out of the remainder of her clothes. /

With a quick stride as if her hand was burning, Caroline crossed the kitchen for the sink, turned on the taps and washed the blood off vigorously, thinking it would be so nice to wash off the memory it had installed in her mind forever: Bonnie is being killed and she is helpless to do squat. Ire and anxiety whirled around within her in a mad dance, and she bit her lip when she felt tears stinging her eyes. Her hands were shaking slightly under the water flow. They were clean, but she rubbed some more, soaping them up and rinsing before turning the taps off with a deep breath of determination to keep the tears away.

Not the right moment. Not now.

She took a few more deep breaths, drying her hands with the kitchen towel that lay on the counter, then walked to the window, producing her cell phone, and dialed.

Stefan picked up on the first beep. "Hey, is everything all right?"

She caught herself considering. Not everything was. "Yeah… yeah, Bonnie's okay and safe, so is Damon. We're back in the Boardinghouse. How's Elena?"

"Well, the curse is not broken, if that's what you ask," he said. "Still asleep, or unconscious… I don't even know. No changes here. What about Kai?"

Caroline grimaced as though he caught her red-handed. "He's… taken care of… for now… sort of." She squeezed her eyes shut in momentary helpless repentance, glanced down at her feet, feeling guilty for even trying to wiggle out of explanation Stefan deserved. "Look, it's a bit hard to explain in a few words, but this problem will wait a bit longer. Bonnie's taking care of it. She… she sealed him in the basement, his neck is snapped, he's secured for now. She didn't want to kill him before making sure there is absolutely no way of undoing his spell."

Stefan hemmed acknowledgment – she could sense his doubts and hated herself for it. Then he said, "Okay, we'll talk about it once I'm home. Is Damon coming here?"

"He might be… I don't know, I didn't ask. He's… not taking Bonnie's plan well, so, you know how he is. Drinking, cursing, glaring. A lot."

Stefan chuckled softly, warming her heart a bit. God, she needed him, like, right now. She wanted him here with her, to be the solid rock to hold on to when waves are raging around, threatening to wash them all into the furious sea.

"Yeah, I know. Well, they release her in the morning, so now, if Kai's locked and Tyler's no longer running rampant, I could come home and you'll tell me what you obviously aren't now."

His voice was soft, clear of any accusation, and she felt a surge of love for him for it. She grinned, feeling a little happy for the first time in this horrible night. "Okay."

"Oh, Caroline? What's with Alaric? Is he there with you, guys?"

She felt her heart sink, and swallowed. "Oh my God… No, no, he's not. We… I completely forgot. I'll send Damon to find him, and I'll stay with Bonnie. I don't wanna leave her alone with this psycho in the basement. Even if he's dead at the moment."

"Sure, okay. I'll call Damon in a bit, so ask him to have his phone on him, please?"

"Will do. Come soon, okay?"

"Of course." He was smiling – she could feel – when he hung up.

And as soon as he did, she was dipped back in the cold, muddy waters of their problems. Stefan wasn't happy to hear about Kai, and though he wasn't as rash and direct in expressing it as Damon, she knew the truth. He would be as concerned as she was, and once he heard about what happened down there, his concern would reach the top red mark where her own was blinking now, bright and horrifying.

She looked at her clean hand and entertained the thought of returning to Kai's cell and finishing what Bonnie had prevented. Bonnie would be mad for days, or weeks, even, but in the end she'd see the light. She would see that Caroline did it to protect her because she wouldn't save herself, not once. Maybe, it was exactly what she, Caroline, had to do. The only sane choice.

She had already reached the doorway when it hit her like a slap to the face that it was exactly what Damon would do if he could. Had he access to Kai, Kai would have been no more. It made Caroline a little sick and conflicted. She wasn't sure if it disgusted her to be similar to Damon even in a situation like this, or she would have approved of him doing it.

"Where's Alaric, Damon?" she inquired, crossing the parlor.

He turned to her, eyebrows raised with brief confusion that swiftly morphed into mortifying guilt. "Dammit. He was in the cemetery, Kai almost drained him. I tried to feed him my blood, but then this motherfucker cut me open like a damn can of beans, and I passed out. Then you came, and… I forgot. Shit." He lilted out his drink, set the glass down harshly and surveyed the room for his jacket.  
"Don't forget your phone, Stefan said he'll call."

"Fine." He shrugged the jacket on, hurrying for the door, then turned to Caroline, his hand tugging on the knob. "Don't let her down there until I get back, you got it? No way she goes back down there before we have that fucking talk."

"Not happening," Caroline nodded. "I'll watch her. Just go."

After a moment's hesitation, Damon went. /

The stale pain in his neck coaxed a quiet groan as Kai came to, feeling like he had a stiff rusty pole instead of the spinal cord. Wincing, he slowly lifted himself up on his elbows, then sat up, dizzy and achy. His veins were stinging as though there was a mix of ginger and chili pepper flowing through them instead of blood. It had to be the infamous work of vervain. He gave a weak laugh, cocking his head from side to side to set the vertebrae right. They crunched, relieving the ache. "So, you went for the right shot this time, hey, Bons," he muttered, and got up on wobbly legs, holding on to the wall as the comber of lightheadedness passed. When it did, he looked down at himself, and peeled the tee-shirt from his chest with two fingers. A hole adorned it, right where his heart was; its edges stiff with drying blood. It gave him another knowing chuckle.

 _Oh, Caroline, at least you tried._

Her failure warmed up his curiosity and pleased him like it would please to see your dart stick in the red bull's-eye of the round aim board. A no-miss, after all.

The thick line of salt lay along the threshold. Once Kai felt a tad more confident that his feet would support him, he slowly made his way to the door – still open as if inviting to leave the prison and taste freedom outside – and looked over the salt. He raised a hand, guiding it as if to reach into the corridor, and jerked it an inch back with a hiss as his fingertips got stung. The red, burnt skin gradually paled back to normal. Vervain was slowing the healing, as well. Interesting. The phantom residue of the burn throbbed in his fingers, but there was also a vibration he registered – a subtle trembling, like the smallest, thinnest strings in the world vibrating on inertia after a single chord has been struck.

The barrier magic.

He felt his smile widen as he lay down on the cot, closed his eyes, and made himself relax in spite of the vervain discomfort, muscle by muscle. After a few moments, it didn't feel all that nasty, anymore. He struck a comfortable pose, put at arm under his head, and let himself begin to drift. All he had to do was wait now, so he could as well catch some good ol' shuteye that wasn't neck-snap induced. /

Bonnie turned the hot water back on, undid the top of her jeans and pushed her pants down over her hips to her thighs, easing onto the closed toilet lid Damon had been occupying minutes before to remove it completely. She wrestled the sticky fabric, disgusted by the memories attached and growing frustrated.

 _(You've cracked)_

Pressing her lips together into a white angry line, she tossed the pants in the sink,

 _(getting cozy with the perpetrator)_

unclipped her bra, shrugged it down her arms and tried to inspect it

 _(while he scratched another itch)_

but instead stared down at it with some kind of a stupid attention, like a junkie on a slow-coming high, or as if trying to see through it.

 _(You've lost it)_

Her face scrunched up in a sudden grimace of rage, her fingers squeezing on the bra's cups convulsively as she stomped a foot so hard an awl of pain pierced it through the sole and up to her ankle. Her eyes welled up with tears of helpless anger as Bonnie envisioned Damon's face. "No! It's you who lost it! So many times no one can count anymore!" She didn't recognize that hissing voice as hers, but she didn't care. She felt like a balloon that has been blown to its near-exploding limit and then someone loosened the hole and air started wheezing out, relieving the pressure on the walls. And that wheezing was her voice.

Bonnie wanted to smack it out of Damon so badly with anything heavy enough that she could lay her hands on here, and wished he were still here so she could. Panting, she made a step towards the toilet seat on stiff legs and plopped on it, trying to get her breathing back to even. Her heart was rapping away, working on the fuel of anger residue.

 _(I can smell it on you)_

"Fuck you, Damon" she whispered with a worn-out disgust, took a few deep breaths, and noticed she was still clutching her bra in a white-knuckled grip. She consciously loosened her fingers, watching the cups reluctantly resume their form. Sighing, Bonnie began inspecting it again, searching for bloodstains and anything to deem it unwearable. She found a red stain on the left strap, a medium sized patch from Kai's assault and a reminder of how easy it would have been for him to send her to an early grave – again.

 _Had he wanted to._

His voice, his tongue and teeth on her skin – she couldn't stop herself from recollecting it, like rolling down the slope on a skateboard and unable to stall. Though she tried, clutching on reason and stomping on the brakes of analysis. Bonnie could admit that she made a mistake, that she was weak, and that for an unanticipated second, she gave into Kai's bite, but she couldn't help it – it was beyond her control. She still didn't know why it happened, why even now as she thought about it she could hear that unwitting moan fall from her lips, surprised how smoothly Kai's teeth had latched onto her neck and how the entire processes hurt for all of three seconds, and feel the reminisce of unforeseen pleasure as it pulled from within. It was an alien sensation, completely out of this world to her. She could never understand it or… approve of it? Yes, maybe that, too. What she'd experienced that night in the forest during Emily's possession with Damon's attack had been painful and stayed with her even now. _That_ pain was the reality of it to her.

Bonnie pushed away from the thought and retreated to make more space between them. There was nothing to analyze about it, it was plain and simple to the core: whatever the way it happened, it was still a vampire's bite: the very weapon they use to kill. He could have killed her.

 _Had he wanted to,_ she felt her own thought dab at her shoulder tentatively, as if shy to have returned to bother her. But once it did, it was there, as she immediately saw Kai's face the moment before he waved his hand and let Caroline in. It wasn't the face of a man who intended to kill.

Suddenly frustrated, Bonnie got off the seat and tried to shut the door on the reverie. She was tired. She would have no more of this nonsense. She craved a break. A big, solid, long break with sleeping for twenty-four hours and not worrying about a single thing.

She strolled to the shower, reached to turn on the cold tap, smoothed her underwear down her hips and stepped out of it, thoroughly rinsing both herself and the supposed material evidence in her hand.


	12. Chapter 12

After Caroline's phone call Stefan found himself unable to quietly sit at Elena's side like a reputed watchdog, too aware and worried about what was down in the boarding house. First, he didn't trust Kai; second, Damon was volatile, and third, someone needed to look for Alaric. He was alone out there, dealing with his wife's body and a collection of prematurely related witch corpses. As for Elena, they already knew that physically there was nothing wrong with her, the doctors even went so far as to confirm their theories by doing every test under the sun. Tests that didn't require days of waiting for results. They even established she wasn't in a coma—there was far too much brain activity—and that she appeared to be asleep, dreaming and peaceful. Stefan could still hear them talking about it, conferring with one another down the hall, trying to find some plausible explanation that made actual sense. They hardly had time to dig any further.

"Any changes?" a middle-aged nurse named Margaret asked kindly. She'd been popping in and out all night.

Stefan shook his head and released the hand he'd been holding. "None. And I don't expect there will be."

"Don't lose faith. Your friend is in the best possible hands. Doctor Egan has over eighteen years of neurology behind him. If someone is going to find the solution – it'll be him."

Stefan smiled and pushed out of the chair with a nod, wishing he could believe that and take solace in the woman's encouraging words. Elena deserved a break and some happiness. But not like this, not in a way that deprived her of her life and made it impossible for her to grow old with her brother and her friends.

"I thank you for everything you've done for us," Stefan said as he approached Margaret, reaching out to take a gentle hold of her shoulder, preventing the nurse from leaving or stepping aside to make room for him. She frowned, temporarily confused by the physicality as their eyes met. "For her. But Doctor Egan has advised that there is nothing else he can do for Elena and that she is merely taking up bed space. She'll be going home tonight."

Margaret raised a hand and squeezed at his left arm compassionately. "I'll get a ward assistant to help you."

"Thank you, but there is no need, Margaret," Stefan replied, attentively meeting the nurse's helpful brown eyes. "But I would like to speak to Doctor Egan. There are a few things I need to clear up before we leave."

"He isn't around. He drove to Bon Secours College in Richmond. Unfortunately, he had a seminar there in the morning that he couldn't cancel. He'll be back towards the afternoon. I could find someone else? Doctor McKenna, maybe?" She prepared to go, her eyes scanning the halls as if searching for a familiar face.

"No, it's okay," he said, averting her aim, trying to decide what to do. Could he leave? Kai was gone. Tyler was contained. Lily was still out hunting for her heretics. What else was there for them to fear tonight in regards to Elena's safety? _Nothing_. "I have somewhere I need to be for a while, if you could get things ready so that basically all I have to do is walk in and grab her, that would be appreciated."

Margaret grinned as though he said something funny. "We aren't a drive thru, Mister Salvatore."

"I meant no offense. It's just been one of those nights."

"I'll see what I can do," Margaret answered, preparing once more to leave. He grasped her shoulder before she could, seeing her brows draw into a frown.

"If anyone out of the ordinary comes to visit her, anyone at all, anyone you don't recognize—"

"You'll be the first I call," she added, the compulsion having been swept into play as soon as they had arrived.

"Thank you," he replied and released her, offering her a small smile. Stefan turned back to Elena and moved to stand beside her bed, yet again taking her warm hand. "I'm sorry that I have to leave," he said in a tone that assumed she might be listening, that maybe she could hear what was going on around her and that it was driving her as crazy as the rest of them. "That you'll be here alone, but you'll be in good hands with Margaret." He smiled fondly, trusting for a second that he could hear her encouraging voice in his head, stressing the importance of being there for family, telling him to be there for Damon and to find Ric.

It's what she would have wanted, he knew, and what she would have done if the roles were reversed, and that made it easier to leave the hospital some five minutes later. /

 _(I'm trying to help him, Damon. I'm trying to set things right.)_

Damon heard Bonnie say over and over, like a broken record stuffed inside his head that refused to shut off or skip to the next stupid remark. He couldn't believe her, couldn't trust that Bonnie—of all people—was opposed to ripping that magic sucker's head clean off his shoulders. And why, because Bonnie was feeling guilty? Because she believed that enough blood had been spilled? Why now? Why after Kai had gone out of his way to ruin their lives? And more importantly, Elena's? Damon only just gotten Elena back! His Elena! They'd only just been given the chance to start a new life together, to be human, to…

He didn't even want to think about it. Because Damon knew if he did, he'd sink deeper into despair and start to despise the witch. Bonnie didn't deserve that, she was his friend and one of the few people he now couldn't live without. He needed to remind himself of that, to remember that this wasn't her fault—that he, too, played a big part in it—and that karma was once again making him its bitch.

Damon curled his hands into tight fists. He craved to break something, to tuck into the nearest available artery and feed until he blacked out. Instead, he forced himself to focus on his rescue mission.

He took off, dashing for the cemetery he'd been gutted in and where, he was certain, he'd seen Alaric last. He could remember feeding Alaric his blood, but what if that had been conjured up in his head amidst that freak's torture? No, it couldn't be. Caroline was there, if Bonnie didn't see him, then her blonde friend would have sniffed him out.

He called Alaric once, taking a shot in the dark, hopeful that his friend might answer, and then called Stefan.

"How's my girl?" Damon asked as soon as the line opened to reference a connection.

"Unchanging," Stefan replied, sounding as happy about reporting that answer as Damon was to hear it.

"No hope, then?" Damon responded, feeling a cold hand clutch at his heart. "What ever happened to telling lies to make someone feel better? Are people too good to do that, anymore?"

"They have their best neurologist on the job," Stefan said, echoing Margaret's previous attempt at comfort, trying to abate the distress he read in his brother's quip and to adhere to his sarcastic enquiry.

"It's too late for that now, Stef. Try leading with that next time. Besides nothing less than a voodoo priestess is going to do the job," Damon jeered. "And regrettably our Priestess is all out of voodoo."

"Give her a break," Stefan said, understanding his frustrations. "Bonnie's dealing the best she can."

"Dealing? She's harboring that psychopath in our basement as if she's starring in her own whacked-out version of Pit Bulls and Parolees. That's not coping, Stefan, that's Bonnie being her decidedly annoying self!"

There was a lengthy pause as Stefan refused to concede to his growing temperament, a silence that comfortably stretched between them for a moment while Damon calmed down.

"Where are you?" Stefan asked, assuming Damon wasn't at the Boardinghouse any longer. He couldn't hear Caroline in the background, nor Bonnie, for that matter.

"You can stop brooding. I'm not going to wring the little witch's neck if that's what you're worried about."

"It's not," Stefan retorted, confident that, with all the time his brother spent with Bonnie in 1994 and everything he'd done in attempt to get her back, he wouldn't simply throw their friendship away.

"I'm at the cemetery. It's where I ran into Ric and the magical samurai last, and where I suspect he'll go back," Damon answered, sniffing the air, his ears straining for any sound of his friend's heartbeat or sound in general. "Call me if there's any change," he instructed as he hung up, picking up on what sounded like a scraping of metal against gravel. Was someone being buried? This late places like these used machinery and otherwise, but this sounded distinctly clumsy, like someone was struggling.

Damon ran toward the sound at full speed, using the cover of night to make things easier and stopped short of Ric's car, surprised to find himself back at the barn and his friend trying to dig a hole on the side of the road.

"Ric?" Damon hailed, trying to gain Alaric's attention. "What are you doing?" Not that there was any need; the back of the open truck, Jo's body and the ongoing attempt to cut through gravel said it all.

"I should have taken her away, I should have left when that first attack happened," Ric mumbled to himself.

"What attack?" Damon asked, wanting to get him talking and away from what he was doing.

"She trusted me. I told her we'd leave. That I'd get her out of here and that she'd be safe."

Damon had no way to respond and was at a loss for words.

"I failed her," Alaric murmured, raising the shovel once more, scowling as the metal slid off the surface. He took cautionary step, then another and eased onto the soft greenery just out of sight, his eyes frequently darting to the back of his trunk to make sure Jo was still there, afraid he'd look away and she wouldn't be there anymore.

It was as if he didn't even see Damon.

"Let me help you," Damon said, seeing the blood on Ric's hands from the way the wood violently slid out of his palms. He could hardly feel it or anything, and as Damon knew from experience – that in itself was wrong.

"No," Alaric snapped, answering him directly for the first time. "Just leave us alone."

"I'm not going anywhere."

For the next ten minutes Damon watched Alaric stab, step and toss sand and grass aside. He was getting nowhere fast and nor did he look like he'd be relenting anytime soon. Alaric could hardly hold the handle.

"You need to stop," Damon said, pushing away from where he'd been leaning against the unbroken part of the formerly sturdy fence. Alaric was doing himself more damage than good and this wasn't helping anymore.

Alaric said nothing, still digging, still working as though he were a human zombie.

"Ric," Damon attempted a second time, ambling toward him, reaching out to touch his shoulder.

Alaric didn't hesitate, his elbow snapping back to connect with Damon's nose, temporarily making the vampire see stars, and followed up by sweeping the shovel beneath his legs, unexpectedly knocking Damon's ass to the ground, driving the piece of wood into Damon's gut before he could even think to defend himself.

"I don't want you anywhere near her!" Alaric hissed, twisting the wood in his stomach, driving a pained cry from Damon's lips. "I don't want you anywhere near me!" He started away from Damon, leaving him to writhe in agony and went to collect Jo.

"Alaric… stop—" Damon gritted out, trying to forestall his friend's second escape, his hands weak, unable to push the wood out of his stomach, blood once more collecting in his mouth as he coughed.

There was a gust of wind, his eyes rolling as unconsciousness began to seep in and then the pain was gone, a clang filling his ears as metal connected with something thick.

Damon raised his head, surprised to see his younger brother looming over Alaric with the bloody shovel in hand. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Helping you."

"I had it covered."

"The ground, maybe," Stefan added, crouching beside Alaric, checking his head to make sure he hadn't injured him too badly. Damon joined him seconds later, rubbing at his stomach absently, feeling anger kick in at the reminder of how awful this night had been and how off his game he was.

"You okay?" Stefan asked, peering up at Damon.

"Can we not do the therapy session?"

Stefan said nothing, submitting to his request, and picked Alaric up, his eyes shifting to Jo. "We should find a car and get them to the boardinghouse."

Damon needed no further reason to walk away and started to search for their ride, his eyes scanning the mass graveyard of cars. In no time, he was driving one of them home. /

"Feeling better?" Caroline asked when she heard Bonnie saunter into the parlor. She was seated on the couch facing the basement, legs crossed and rested upon another chair, a blood pack and chips positioned beside her.

"Damon around?" Bonnie asked, arching her eyebrows a little as Caroline peered over her shoulder.

"No," the blonde replied, trying to figure out if that would make a difference in her friend's approach.

"Then yes. A little," Bonnie responded, walking around the back of the sofa, lifting her feet onto the chair beside Caroline's as she sat down, snatching a handful of cheesy chips from the bowl in the blonde's lap. "Where'd you find these?"

"The pantry."

"Are you sure they're not stale?" Bonnie popped one into her mouth to try. Caroline unwearyingly awaited a verdict, regular food no longer holding the same taste it used to. She was a poor judge now. "Mhmm," Bonnie commented, assuring her the chips were fine as they fell into a comfortable silence.

"Are those Elena's boots?" Caroline queried, her eyes trained upon the shoes in question.

Bonnie nodded and popped another cheese curl in her mouth, following it up with a swift third and fourth. She was hungry, unclear of when she last ate since today had been quite frantic, even before all the mayhem. "As is the skirt and sweater," she added conversationally, motioning to both items with her free hand. "As soon as I can, I'll stop in at home and grab some fresh clothes."

"You better," Caroline deliberated. "It stinks." Bonnie automatically flicked a chip at her with feigned offense, Caroline's mouth falling open with subdued shock that soon turned playful. "Bonnie Bennett, don't start a war you can't finish."

Bonnie flicked another chip, grinning slightly. "That's for saying I stink."

"That's not what I meant," Caroline replied defensively, plucking the chip off her dress, using her free hand to wipe away the cheese flecks. "You do know these things are saturated in oil? And that it'll stain."

"You'll survive."

"Sure! But this dress and my budget won't."

"Your budget?" Bonnie asked naively, dusting her fingers off on the denim she was wearing.

"After my mother's treatments, hospital stays and checkups, we've racked up a fairly large bill."

"Oh… And you're expected to pay? There isn't any insurance in place?"

Caroline shrugged, uncertain of the answer or where to even start looking for such important documents. "Was there one with your father?"

"I'm not sure. I never looked into it." Neither of them had had the time to do so.

"What of his will?"

"I guess, I get the house? Both, in fact—"

"Both?"

"My grandmother's too."

"Right," Caroline said, the two of them falling silent again. Two years ago neither of them would have dreamed they'd be discussing their parents' deaths or their own before they were even twenty.

"I should probably got check on Kai and make sure he isn't plotting our demise or something," Bonnie said, stealing one last chip from the bowl before moving to a standing.

Caroline was already on her feet before she even registered that the blonde joined her. "Is that such a good idea?"

"You're babysitting me now?"

"No," Caroline replied, looking rather troubled and guilty.

"Okay then," Bonnie murmured, gliding past her, heading for the basement with a determined gait.

Caroline appeared in front of her, barricading the way. "It's just that Damon doesn't think it such a good idea you go back down there."

"Since when do you listen to Damon?" Bonnie asked, a light smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

"Since he seems to care about you—"

"I'll be fine. Kai can't get out. Not unless you or I open the mystical door for him."

"Are you sure about that?"

"No. I'm not certain about anything where Kai is concerned," Bonnie reached out to take Caroline's shoulder, coercing her to step out of the way and to the side. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to stay up here and hide."

"Bonnie, please—"

"Caroline, I'm not planning to step into the cell with him – not again. I just want to see if he's woken up, that's all. It's a quick in and out."

"I don't hear anything," Caroline said, making a show of straining her ears, a hand lifted and cupped around her right one. "Maybe he decided to take a nap or maybe… I snapped something important."

"You mean like his neck? Yeah. He was within half an hour last time," Bonnie commented as she walked away from her friend, listening to her fall in line behind, unwilling to leave Bonnie alone down there again.

They hadn't gotten too far down the stairs when the front door slammed open and two recognizable voices could be heard from upstairs. Damon and Stefan. They were home.

Bonnie peered back at Caroline, her face indecipherable as she eavesdropped. "They got him. Alaric." She smiled with relief, turning around on the stairs, taking Caroline's offered hand as they quickly made their way back to the living room.

"Where did you find him?" Caroline asked as they sashayed into the parlor again. Damon appeared weary upon seeing them emerge from the basement, choosing to bite his tongue while he cradled Elena in his arms.

Bonnie examined him, rather confused by her presence when they'd decided to let the doctors take care of her a while longer. Damon made no move to explain and Caroline was too distracted to notice.

Bonnie knew he had a lot to say, too, and that their earlier bout was far from over. Damon promised they'd discuss it further and she knew from experience that when it came to proving his point, he wouldn't back down, not until he was sure he'd adequately doused her in his unwanted wisdom. She wasn't thrilled.

"He was just outside the barn. He did a one eighty and went back to bury Jo," Damon replied.

Guilt seeped into Bonnie at the recollection, which, she deemed, had a lot to do with the fact that Ric had seen her _stake_ Kai.

"Is he okay?" Caroline queried, whooshing up to Stefan's side as he laid the history teacher down on the couch. She did a hurried check of his injuries to make sure he wasn't seriously wounded.

"Only if you don't bear in mind that Stefan almost cracked his head open like a ripe melon," Damon remarked.

"I didn't hit him that hard," Stefan countered, sounding a touch exasperated and defensive. "Moreover, he didn't leave me any other choice and tried to kill you."

Damon shrugged, forgoing another jab at his brother's expense, and headed for the stairs. Bonnie could tell he was fuming.

"He'll be okay," Caroline added without looking up and in a soothing tone meant to put Stefan at ease.

"I made sure they gave him a sedative at the hospital," Stefan declared once his brother was out of earshot. "He was really out of it. I think—I think he reached a snapping point."

After all Alaric had been through, Bonnie wasn't surprised. She didn't think any of them were.

She approached the back of the chair and peered down, scrutinizing his slack face, the torment written over it even in his unconscious state. None of the scars Alaric retained tonight were external, they were all internal and caked in his psyche like a wicked footnote. She was doubtful he would ever be the same again.

"Where is Jo? I mean… the body," she asked, concerned that Ric's bride wouldn't get the burial she deserved and that in their haste they'd left her to rot in some hole on the side of the street.

"She's in the back of the car. I couldn't bring myself to leave her there and Ric… well, we thought it best to have some kind of insurance, something to make him see the light when he wakes up—"

"The light?"

"Bargaining chip. He is… in lack of better word: unstable."

Bonnie knew that broken down feeling, that hopelessness of being lost and without an anchor. She wanted to cry for him, to mourn Alaric's loss and simultaneously turn back the clock. But she knew it was impossible.

"Maybe you should take him upstairs?" she recommended, pushing aside the guilt she was feeling. "Damon's room is out of the question and I'm guessing your bed will be occupied with Elena for the night."

"We aren't going to—" Caroline began as she looked up from Alaric, hesitant of what to say or how to go about asking if they would be storing their friend like maturing meat.

Bonnie's heart ached just thinking about it. "No, I—I don't have it in me tonight. I'm kind of wiped," she said.

Stefan gazed at her considerately.

"And… I don't have a spell in place yet. I need to look and dig into things a little further. I'll get to it. I promise."

Caroline breathed a small sigh of relief, glancing back at Stefan who took that as a cue and once again bent to pick Alaric up off the couch. He looked as if he, too, had more to say, but decided against it for now as he started toward the staircase. Caroline followed.

"What's up with Damon's room?" Stefan asked absently, wrinkling his nose the more he became aware of an acquainted smell lingering in the air. "Is that—"

"Smoke?" Caroline contributed obligingly, once they started climbing the stairs. "Yes. But if I were you, I wouldn't fuss. Not now. Damon's already had a meltdown and I would hate to review that again."

"How?" Bonnie heard Stefan as his voice faded. She didn't hear Caroline's answer and nor did she need to. Caroline told him everything. She rarely – if ever – kept anything to herself, anymore. And especially not from Stefan.

Bonnie sat down on the back of the couch, smiling to herself slightly, entertained by the fact that Caroline temporarily forgot she was body-guarding her. Bonnie needed the breathing room, the space to think and decide what she was going to do now that Alaric was in the house. How was she going to tell him what she'd done? How was she going to look him in the eye and make him understand that Kai's death was off the menu?

Bonnie pushed off the couch after a minute's morbid contemplation and headed for the front door, stepping out into the drive, slowly approaching the unfamiliar looking car parked in the driveway. She closed the passenger doors, walked around the front of the vehicle and pulled the catch release beneath the driver's seat, the trunk lid jumping open within a second. She straightened up and started around back, peering inside with bated breath, studying the bride's face through the blue mesh.

Looking at her now, it was as if Bonnie couldn't believe that Jo died. Like with her father, it was too quick to be real. Jo had been so frantic this morning, unable to find her shoes and devastated when she found out her coordinator had gotten sick and was unable to help run things. Panic that lasted all of five minutes before Caroline swooped in and saved the day. They'd all been assigned tasks within minutes. That was also the reason Bonnie stayed behind, why she'd fallen behind on getting ready herself and why she'd been such an easy target. Bonnie didn't know Jo very well, in fact, she'd only known her a few days, but the doctor lady seemed like a pleasant woman, undeserving of the fate her brother offered her. And Bonnie unintentionally signed it for her by abandoning him in nineteen-o-three.

She reached out, driven by some innate force, slender fingers curling into the blue mesh, tugging at it gently to get a better look at Jo's pallid face, seeking some kind of consolation or reason to continue hating herself. /

"That should do it," Stefan said, tucking Alaric in while Caroline stuffed Saltzman's bloodied clothes into a plastic bag. They had changed him into Stefan's sweatpants and tee-shirt.

"You think we should stay here and watch him?" she asked. "What if he wakes up and just… just walks away same way he did from the cemetery?"

"No. That sedative shot they gave him should keep him asleep long enough for us to rest some. Besides, we'll be in the next room and will hear if he stirs."

Caroline sighed, propping the bag against the commode. "Too bad we don't have those baby monitors. Maybe we should get some, given how often we need to babysit everyone."

Stefan laughed quietly despite himself. Caroline's scowl softened into a responding smile as she walked into his embrace. And there, with his arms around her, she felt it was safe to loosen up a bit.

"I'm so tired," she whispered against his shoulder and didn't see his face darken a tad with empathy. "And confused… and… and scared. I'm so scared, Stefan." She leaned back a bit to see his face. "I was so scared today – and not even on the wedding – which was awful and horrible – but in that basement, with Bonnie… I… I thought…" The last dam on the way of her flood of confessions held a bit, bending into an arc like a bow with a string being drawn, and then cracked open like a rotten plank under the pressing waves of truths. Her eyes welled up, her lips quivered. "I thought she would die right there, in front of me, and I couldn't do anything, I couldn't… he… he put a barrier on the door, thought she injected him with some stuff… some potion that would bind his magic – well, it didn't! And she was just… he bit her. And she almost passed out. I…" She closed her eyes and let them flow, leaning back into his chest. He held her as she wept.

"But she's all right," he said in a quiet, soothing voice, stroking her hair. "She's fine, you saved her, right?" He frowned to himself subtly, musing about the barrier. How _did_ she save Bonnie?

"I snapped his neck," she uttered finally between her sobs. "Then wanted to rip his heart out, but she said no. She said no, Stefan." Anger crawled into her voice like an afternoon shadow, and when she leaned back again, her eyes were drying up. "She said he deserves a chance. He killed his pregnant sister, all his coven, enchanted our friend out of our lives for God knows how long – and out of Bonnie's life forever – and she decided to give him a chance! How…" Her arms fell off him and she threw them up in a gesture of indignation, then paced across the room. "Damon was pissed beyond nine hells, too. There's something else scaring me," she turned to look at him with narrowed eyes, as though not too certain of what she was about to let him in on. "She had that faint scent on her… I think she _liked_ it."

Stefan considered it, his eyes holding Caroline's. "So he was, what, gentle?"

Caroline winced with irritation and shook her head. "Who cares? It's Kai! The sociopathic vampire-witch murderer! How can she… I don't know. I just… can't." She shook her head again and picked up the bag.

Stefan wrapped an arm around her shoulder, drawing her to him. "She's exhausted, stressed out and confused. She needs to rest a bit and clear her head – none of us got a chance to do that tonight. Bonnie's the most reasonable person we know. She will sort it out for herself, and she won't be deaf to reason. Just give her a few hours of sleep."

"I wish she could be sedated for the night. She was heading back to the basement when you returned."

They closed the door to Alaric's bedroom and strolled down the corridor.

"She won't go there alone," Stefan said. "She's not crazy."

"I thought so, too," Caroline sighed and detached herself from him, shaking the bag in her hand. "Gonna dump this, and you make sure Bonnie and Damon aren't gnawing each other's throats, please?"

Stefan grinned, "It's my full-time job. Don't I love it."

She returned his grin and went ahead and down the stairs. Stefan rubbed his neck tiredly, the smile slipping off his mouth, and headed to the parlor just as he heard the front door open and close. /

"Curious to see the degree of the damage your boyfriend caused?" Damon asked from behind her. As always he'd made absolutely no sound and spoke only to breathe down Bonnie's neck. She got the impression that he liked intimidating her – that he liked daunting everyone.

She gasped softly and jerked her hand away, rebounding it off the side of the trunk like a thief who'd been caught with her hand in the register. She winced and took a hold of her fingertips, trying to appease their bruising ache as they healed.

"Careful, Bonbon. Those hands are valuable and still have a job to do."

She wasn't ready for that talk now, tears glistening in her eyes as she walked away from him a second time tonight and attempted to head for the house. He wasn't about to surrender the topic of conversation that easily and deliberately followed her.

"What… you're too scared to face the truth? Too frightened to see the reality of what you're trying to save? And the hopeless battle you have on your hands?" Damon scoffed as though he couldn't believe what he was seeing, his eyes narrowing on the back of her retreating head. "When did you become so damned selfish?"

Bonnie spun around as though slapped, her eyes blazing as his body flew back and banged into the side of the car. "Around the same time I realized that I can't count on anyone but myself."

Damon's eyes hardened instinctually, waiting for her to say something more, waiting for her to elaborate on when that was and to start an all-out war. "I did everything in my power to get you out of there."

She didn't have to think about what he was referring to. She knew. "And you did. If it wasn't for you I would probably still be there. But going back to that hellhole of an island, climbing that rock and descending into the belly of the beast a second time was an eye opener for me." It made her realize how much her life meant to her, how over she was dying for others and how adamant to put herself first. "He was still there you know—"

"Who? Silas?"

"Silas," she parroted, confirming his aforementioned speculation. "How do you think I managed to bring back the cure for you? It wasn't as if it was neatly placed on the floor."

"Then why did you—"

"Because I felt obliged and I wanted you to be happy. And Elena happy, makes you happy, right?"

Damon remained quiet, trying to measure the point of her argument and where this was leading for the present.

"There was no way I was supposed to be able to take that magic from that rock—I had none, and yet… I did. How? I don't know, I didn't question it at the time but sometimes I fear that maybe I re-woke Silas."

"That's impossible."

"Is it?"

"You told me he was sucked into the great black yonder."

She arched a brow, entertained by his attempt to thwart her unrelenting reservations. "And we weren't?"

Damon pinched the bridge of his nose, negating the repercussions of that and what it would mean for his baby brother, if, by some supernatural fluke, that were to be true. "Is that it then? All of this craziness with Kai stems from your fear of Silas? Of his control?"

Not of his control but of being controlled, dictated to and broken down. That's what Kai was doing to her now, what he'd done by linking Elena and her and threatened to do if he continued on his warpath. She needed to change that. She didn't even see Stefan exit the house in order to become a quiet spectator. "I don't expect someone like you to understand."

"Like me?"

Bonnie observed his face in the porch light, taking a moment to appreciate how affronted he looked, like he was ready to defend his delicate sensibilities for the umpteenth time.

"Like you. You remember Andie, don't you?"

"What does she have to do with anything?" he retorted, pulling a face of utter distaste.

Bonnie shook her head and turned around to face the door, flinching as he appeared in front of her. "What do you want from me?" she spat, irritated by his continual need to crowd her space.

"I want you to tell me the truth."

"What truth?"

"Why Kai? What's with the sudden sally saver routine?"

"I told you. I made a mistake. I'm trying to correct it the only way I can, the only way it seems feasible to me."

"By coddling him? By feeding him and possibly giving him a boner?"

Bonnie narrowed her eyes and pitched him through the front door, uncaring of how he painfully sprawled on his back. She hated talking to Damon when he was like this. He peered up at her as she made to step over him, and unexpectedly grabbed her ankle, sending her tumbling to the floor beside him. She yelped as she hit the wood.

"Not so fun being knocked around, is it?" he asked rhetorically and once she was able to spear him with a glare. He stood and offered her a hand.

She ignored it, bringing her legs beneath her body.

"You want to play nurse maid to that psychopath, then so be it, but don't expect me to do the same," he hissed, his eyes burning into her features with absolute assurance of his intended viciousness. "If I get my shot, I'll kill him."

Bonnie pushed off the floor, laughing softly as she did. "As if I expected anything more of you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're predictable. That you have only once solution to everything in our lives and yours—and that's violence!"

"And he doesn't?"

"He doesn't know any fucking better! You and I spent four months in that place, me – six, and from experience, I can tell you that place has the potential to fuck you up."

"So now we're making excuses for him?"

"Of course not! But no human is born evil. Maybe, just maybe I'm coming to understand that. That his family, his situation and whatever else took a toll on him. You're not the only one with issues, Damon!"

"And I never claimed to be!"

"Could have fooled me," she uttered.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"Not clearly. Is there something else you want to say, Bonnie Bennett? Something else on your mind?"

"You used me."

"What?" Damon asked, arching his eyebrows as if he hadn't heard her correctly. "Used you how?"

"You needed a witch to get you to nineteen-o-three. Kai wouldn't go. I wouldn't go. You spoon-fed me what I wanted to hear, what I needed to hear because you knew how scared I was. You knew I would take the bait."

"You're reaching—"

"Am I?" she interjected, fixing him with a narrow-eyed stare, still oblivious to the fact that Stefan was watching the two of them. "Admit it, Damon. Be honest for once in your fucking life and stop playing games with me!"

"I didn't. I… wouldn't. I just… I thought it would be easier, that with him gone and out of the picture completely that you'd be able to breathe."

"Did you know of the coven?" she asked, recalling a snippet of what Kai had told her in the forest. She didn't believe for a second that Alaric and Damon hadn't been sharing information with one another, they were friends and something as important as Jo's life being linked to Kai's had to be common knowledge.

"Bonnie—"

"Did you know?"

She could see the truth reflect in his eyes in the way he drew into himself, as if he was too afraid to voice it aloud and was instantly reverting to his usual know it all defense mechanism. "I thought that with Jo's power gone, that she'd be okay and that with the supernatural distance the link wouldn't be an issue. I thought it would okay and that I'd have my mother and you'd—"

Bonnie swallowed the sob forming in her throat, shocked and hurt by how willing her friend was to get blood on her hands, innocent people's blood, people who lay scattered around the barn like dead mice. She clenched her hands into fists, heat spiraling through her like an untamed sea as grief turned into anger. She took an unconscious step toward him planning to inflict pain, seeing his brows draw down in consideration, and felt a hand come to rest on her shoulder. _Stefan_.

She breathed through her nose, struggling to calm herself down, and read the empathic look of understanding in his green eyes and the warning that another part of herself would be chipped away. Bonnie refused to look at Damon any more than was necessary and turned her back on him, shrugging Stefan's hand off as she headed for the kitchen to get some water, feeling exhaustion seep in with every step. /

"Savior Stefan to the rescue," Damon muttered grouchily, turning away to walk toward the bar, snatching the bourbon off the counter. He unscrewed the cap, drinking from the bottle. "Whatever would I do without you?"

"Enough, Damon."

He snorted, taking another hearty swig.

"We need to go. We've a mess to clean up, officials to compel and a crime scene to demolish."

"You mean you haven't done that yet? I thought heroes were capable of doing things in a single bound."

Stefan stared at him straight-faced, appearing before him, snatching the bottle out of his hands. Damon didn't fight him on it, too focused on the inkling of punching him, his eyes narrowing contemptuously.

"Take Blondie," Damon added, reigning himself in, snatching the bottle back.

"Now is not the time for you to lose it. Lily is still out there looking a bunch of heretics that Kai has brought back with him. Killers just like him, monsters who are going to make our lives hell if we fall apart."

"You couldn't have saved this lecture for Bonnie? She's the one that needs it."

"What Bonnie needs is sleep. What you need is a reason to keep going," Stefan stated reasonably, seeing the look of distaste sweep across Damon's face. He hated being read and more importantly, he loathed Stefan being right. Stefan said no more, gesturing toward the door, meeting Caroline's eyes on the way out. She'd heard their conversation.

"What about Jo's body?" Damon asked on his way out. "We going to tow that around with us as a souvenir?"

"I'll err… take care of it," Caroline said, walking out behind them to retrieve it, feeling her own heart sink at the thought of dealing with the deceased woman and short-lived friend. /

Bonnie sat at the kitchen counter, sipping a cold glass of water and nibbling on a few grapes she found in the fridge. She couldn't stop thinking about her argument with Damon. She was so disenchanted, so ridiculously heartbroken – not only would she never see Elena again – but she sensed she'd lost Damon, too. He wasn't her favorite person before, and she certainly knew she wasn't his, but they grew closer, and there was a part of her that missed seeing him every day, that missed his insistent need to ply her with pancake after pancake. It wounded her to think that that part of their relationship was over, that where she could tell him how she was feeling or have him read her bad moods – he couldn't understand how lost she'd been. Bonnie supposed she couldn't blame him – he had a lot to deal with. Humanity-off Stefan, Sheriff Forbes, Lily and Elena. There wasn't room for Bonnie in that equation. Who knew if that would change now? And who knew if she would want it to?

She pushed away from the marble counter, throwing away the grapes castoff stems before returning the rest to the fridge and rinsing her glass – which she left to dry on the rack.

She headed back out into the foyer, stopping on her way upstairs when she noticed Caroline seated on the table she'd used for her legs earlier and that she was holding a lifeless Jo's hand. She looked like she'd been crying.

"One minute she's worried about chocolate staining her dress and the next… she's _just_ gone." Caroline said, sounding tearful, her traditional mask of optimism no longer present. "It happened so fast."

Bonnie knew that people thought Caroline to be some senseless joy machine that barely stopped to register grief, but she also knew it was the only way the blonde could cope. That when Caroline stopped pushing – like now – she would crumble. It happened with her father, something she'd distracted herself from by throwing herself into everyone else's issues. How she could even stand to look at Alaric Bonnie didn't know. He'd murdered her father – not willingly, but something had taken him over, something had driven him to that point and controlled him. Bonnie didn't need for Caroline to voice that out loud to know that it was a continued issue and that he would always remind her of that loss.

"I'm supposed to be faster, better, stronger… and yet I could do nothing for Jo or for Elena…"

"You're not a clairvoyant," Bonnie remarked, squatting beside her. "That's my job. Or at least it was."

Caroline chuckled as if she'd suddenly thought of something amusing.

Bonnie frowned.

"Remember that séance?" Caroline asked.

"You mean the one where I was possessed by a long lost relative hell-bent on thwarting Damon's evil plans?"

"That's the one. I was so scared then." And Bonnie could sense that despite her bravado, even with everything they witnessed and what they knew as vicious certainty – she still was. Bonnie was, too.

"You were terrified? It was your idea!"

Caroline smiled, looking a touch sheepish for putting her in that position in the first place – as if she wanted to apologize for the part she had in that.

"Don't," Bonnie said, dismissing Caroline's sudden insecurities. "If we start going into the 'I'm sorry for not being there for you' spiel we'll be here all night. There is a lot I wish I could have done for you too."

Caroline closed her eyes, swallowed thickly, and stood. "You think she's still around?" she asked, sparing a look around the parlor.

"Who? Jo? Without the other side?"

Caroline nodded slightly.

"I'm not sure. I don't suppose so—"

"Then where do you believe the supernatural dead go now?"

Bonnie took a moment to consider this, as if needed to contemplate a correct answer. "Heaven."

"Heaven?" she repeated, sounding unusually doubtful. "You believe in that? In God?"

"After everything we've seen? Absolutely. It's uplifting knowing once my life is over for good here, on this plane of existence, that I might find peace. Speaking from experience I'm not a fan of the other side."

Caroline frowned, looking wounded by the prospect of Bonnie's mortality, as if she hated being reminded of how many times she'd lost her friend and how close she'd come to the third time tonight. That was enough of that.

Bonnie brought her hands together and stood, too. "We should take her into the basement." Caroline's brows rose slowly, as if she were uncertain of Bonnie's motives. "It's cooler down there and should help with the decomposition and the smell—"

"Oh," she said, flushing slightly. "You'd think I know that by now."

"I think it's safe to say that not being used to death and everything in between is okay."

Caroline scooped Jo off the couch, her eyes fixed ahead as Bonnie lead her down into the basement. They were unhurried and cautious, both afraid that Kai might be lurking in the shadows readying to pounce. She set Jo down on the floor of the second cell. It was devoid of furnishings but far more spacious than the one Kai was in and served as a supernatural suite that held both Elijah, Katherine and Rebekah in the past.

Bonnie crouched beside Jo and helped Caroline smooth the blue mesh over her face again. "Stragulum hac anima," she murmured, closing her eyes.

Caroline straightened up, her arms folding across her chest protectively. She'd never been an enthusiast of magic and if she were honest – it frightened her. She had seen what it can do and was a walking-talking example of it.

"Custodi illam foramen," Bonnie repeated the words with more vehemence, concentrating on Jo and the cloth laid over her, feeling a synthetic wind appear in the cell and sweep around them. Caroline shivered, observing with a mix of awe as the cloth tucked in around Jo, cocooning her frame within its thin fold as though she were a modern day Snow White.

"What did you do?" Caroline asked once Bonnie opened her eyes and appeared to relax.

"I slowed down the decomposition. Ric's going to be out of it awhile and with Elena…"

"There won't be much time to get to Jo straight away," she settled, voicing Bonnie's thoughts aloud.

"Precisely," Bonnie said, pushing off the ground, dusting off her knees as she started out of the cell. She walked ahead of the blonde and stole a glance inside Kai's cell. He was no longer on the floor and had moved to the cot. He'd given up? Bonnie checked the salt line, making sure it hadn't been disturbed, and took a step back, sensing Caroline's weariness, as if she feared Bonnie would take a step inside for some unknown reason as though she had developed a death wish. Bonnie didn't and had no such inclination – not tonight. They needed rest, both of them.

"I'll speak to you in the morning?" Bonnie said, ascending the stairs once more and stepping into the hallway.

"Goodnight, Bonnie."

"Goodnight, Care," she said, throwing her a passing look over the shoulder.

When Caroline was gone, she removed her phone, called Stefan to check on him and make sure he wouldn't need her help with compelling people, with talking to anyone at the station, and then claimed her own bed for the night. **/**

Kai had been floating in that light state of dreaming where no visions that came felt real enough. They were like figures in the mist, ever shifting, changing, fleeting. Before your eye registers a familiar shape, it morphs into something utterly different. In there, between faint veils of fantasies, he heard the thud of a door, then voices that gained more familiarity the more they pulled him out of his slumber. Seemed like the searching party had returned. Kai could hear Damon, Stefan, Caroline and Bonnie conversing as he lay with his eyes closed, still relishing in the relaxation the remnants of sleep provided, unwilling to disturb it by more activity yet.

And what would he need the activity for now, anyway? It still wasn't his turn to make a move in this little game.

It wasn't long before a pair of footfalls descended the basement stairs and shuffled to one of the cells. He heard Bonnie chant in a quiet voice. It was a preservation spell. Probably, for Jo's body. Their conversation after Caroline asked her what she did, confirmed his guess.

"I slowed down the decomposition," Bonnie responded. "Ric's going to be out of it awhile and with Elena—"

"—there won't be much time to get to Jo straight away," Caroline caught up.

"Precisely."

They walked and stood at his cell, peeking in, he presumed. Kai still kept his eyes closed and didn't move. But he could sense her eyes on him. He wondered what she was thinking, what conflicts were stirring in her heart and which side was winning the favors. He had an idea that if he was still breathing, the side he placed his bet on had pretty nice chances on this round of the race.

Neither of them said anything as they turned and left in a bit.

"I'll speak to you in the morning?" Bonnie's voice drifted from the stairs, fading subtly.

"Goodnight, Bonnie."

"Goodnight, Care."

Kai lay still for another hour and a half until all sounds settled into silence disturbed by timid thuds of hearts that were like breaths of the sleeping. He squatted down beside the salt border, holding a hand out, his fingertips touching the crystals. It stung like acid, but he ignored the pain, closing his eyes and concentrating on the energy powering the barrier. Once his focus locked on it, the stinging started to abate. A shiver of pleasure traveled through him along with the magic seeping in. When it was done, he shrugged the denim jacket off, tossed it on the cot and slipped out.

The fire damage appeared to have concentrated in Damon's room, which looked like a special cell of the ninth hell circle. His bed lay in charcoal ruins, no spot untouched by black and stink. Even though Kai had hoped for more destruction, that room alone was a blow hard enough for Damon Salvatore to take.

Kai peeled off the tee-shirt Caroline had ruined earlier and dropped it on the pile of black coals that had been Damon's cupboard before turning his feet to another brother's bedroom. Unexpectedly, it had been turned into a Sleeping Beauty tower. Elena slumbered serenely on Stefan's bed, her hands folded on her belly. Kai fished a fresh sweatshirt out of the drawer and put it on. "Just don't tell Stefan," he mouthed to Elena, smiling as he closed the door soundlessly behind him.

Bonnie's face was not quite as serene as her friend's. A fleeting frown touched her forehead between the eyebrows every now and then as she dipped deeper in slumber and whatever she had been seeing saturated its colors for her inner eye. It was a great temptation to submerge a finger or two into that bowl of her dreams and stir their waters, but Kai resisted. Her own mind would do a better job at that. What he didn't resist was crouching by the head of her bed and watching her sleep for a while. And while she had been watching her dreams, he indulged in his, remembering the feeling of her skin under his lips, the taste of her blood on his tongue, the beating of her heart against his own. He reached out and caressed a finger-pad across her slightly parted lips, a delicate smile glimmering in the corners of his mouth. Her heart picked up a trifle, coaxing a fracture of wakening.

"Plucky little witchling," he whispered into her ear so softly it might as well have been a dream.

A few hair shifted at her temple under a breath of air when he ghosted away from her room.

His palm hummed with energy as he took it away from the salt. Kai had bound the barrier to Bonnie's blood only – he didn't think Caroline would know how to check, nor need to. He put the denim jacket back on over the new sweatshirt and sprawled on the cot for more shuteye with a relaxed sigh.


	13. Chapter 13

"Ligandi atque hanc animam precor," Bonnie said in preparation of Elena's sealing spell, reading the words aloud over and over on the piece of paper she'd scrawled it on the night before, making certain her pronunciation was correct. She didn't want any more mistakes. "Ab iniuria et totum."

Caroline and Stefan progressively circled her in silence, placing candles upon the thin ledge that ran along the inside of the crypt, lighting them as she'd previously requested.

Damon was gone, skipping the last step of their goodbye to Elena, making himself scarce as soon as the lid closed on her prison. He didn't want to be around when they locked away his budding happily-ever-after.

Matt couldn't stick around either, he was distraught and doing his best keep Tyler together. Whom, like Alaric, appeared to be livid, devastated and unintelligible once awoken, a volatile mixture of emotions one would expect from a man that lost his wife, or from a guy who had been forced to kill his girlfriend in order to survive.

Jeremy had come, had his moment with Elena, barely looked Bonnie in the eye, and was gone again. He said not a word to Bonnie, not even a 'hi', which made her think he was still mad. She didn't blame him.

Bonnie set the piece of paper down and rubbed at her stinging eyes. She hardly remembered sleeping as her brain had been too active in its need to replay every nitty-gritty detail of last night's events. It started the same: her leaving Kai in the nineteen-o-three, his mass revenge, and then the ending, the culmination that became seedier with Damon and Caroline's provoking accusations. Bonnie didn't read into it, she refused, but somehow she harbored a lot of guilt anyway, like she was doing something wrong and that it wasn't her subconscious running away from her to give life to the nightmares they'd implanted in her head. She wanted to talk to Caroline about it, to air the accumulative feeling that came from the bite, yet the blonde's previous reaction stuck with her. What if Caroline again suspected her of harboring some unexpressed feeling for Kai? What if her friend turned on her like Damon did?

It reminded Bonnie of something her grandmother used to say and believed in. Voicing your issue would manifest it and give it a face. Bonnie didn't want that, she didn't need that hold trying to suffocate her. It was bad enough she couldn't stop thinking about him finding another way to hinder her salt barrier, and that he'd kill them in their sleep, or more specifically, everyone else. At this point in time, Bonnie suspected he wanted nothing more than to torment her, and that like any decent horror movie villain types, Kai probably planned to save her for the last.

But then why in her dream, when Kai finally stepped away from her, did he look at peace? Like he was prepared to die? Or was that merely her head playing tricks on her, giving her some silly view of what she wanted to see? It was laughable, really, as she didn't see him giving Stefan a run for his money in the hero department, and yet Bonnie knew she expected a certain degree of good from Kai in order for this to work, the same way she anticipated it from Damon or anyone else in their lives.

It was a lot to undertake in less than twenty-four hours and there was no end in sight – not anytime soon.

"We're done. Now what?" Caroline folded the packet she was holding, stuffing it into Stefan's right side jacket pocket. He didn't seem at all bothered or surprised by what she did.

"Now you two go home," Bonnie said. Elena's coffin was placed in the delineated hole in the crypt wall and all that was left to do was to set the blank headstone.

Both Caroline and Stefan appeared muddled by the announcement.

Caroline looked apprehensive. "The last time I left you alone—"

"Those were different circumstances," Bonnie retorted, cutting short her unease, casting a glance at Stefan, hoping to find of the usual support in him. He gave her neither this time as though he, too, feared for her life. "I'm not going to kill myself, guys."

"No one said you would," said Stefan. "It's just that after last night and after what Damon said, we just want to make sure you're okay and that you know we don't expect some kind of sleeping beauty miracle."

Bonnie smiled a little, unable to help it, incapable of accepting that for the first time in a very long time, she didn't feel pressured to give into the responsibility bait thrown at her.

Bringing people back from the dead was impossible and, as her grandmother reminded her time and time again over the years, unnatural. In all reality Bonnie shouldn't be here, she shouldn't have been able to get to that prison world and she sure as hell shouldn't haven been allowed another chance at life after she threw it away. Yet she was. If she'd come to learn anything from her time in the prison world, it was that she needed to stop letting people use her, manipulate her and otherwise coax her into devaluing her own life.

"Trust me, I have outgrown suicide missions. I won't push myself," Bonnie felt obliged to add.

Neither looked convinced, not with her past conviction and the volatile figure bunking in Stefan's basement.

"Fine," Caroline said after a second's consideration, taking a hold of the younger Salvatore's hand, tugging him toward the crypt's entrance. He didn't fight her. "We'll wait outside."

Bonnie wanted to tell her she could do with the walk home to clear her head and that she needed some time to think of how best to tackle Kai next. She didn't get the chance and knew Caroline wouldn't take it. /

Bonnie emerged from the burial chamber ten minutes later, spreading her arms at her sides to display she was in one piece. Both Caroline and Stefan looked appeased and threw her an indecipherable smile before walking away. Bonnie frowned slightly at their reaction, taking a step forward to trail after them, and caught sight of something or someone approaching her from her left. It was only as she turned to look that her heart leapt into her throat.

"Jeremy?" she said and stopped, taking in the handsome planes of his face and how he seemed to have changed with his time away, he even had a hint of stubble growing, like he hadn't seen a razor in a few days. "What are you doing here? I thought you left. I mean… are you here to see Elena?" He'd already seen her, but Bonnie assumed—since he was here—he might want to see that she was secure.

"Yeah, I—" he seemed at a loss for words as if he were trying to come up with something to say. Bonnie longed to hug him, to feel his arms around her and have him do away with this discomforting awkwardness growing between them. "I was gone. I mean, I am still going and was at the 'you're now leaving mystic falls' sign when Matt told me you were here and suggested I talk to you."

"Oh," she reacted, feeling a hint of indignation wash over her. She scolded herself immediately. She brought this attitude and distance on herself. She was the one who told Jeremy over the phone that he'd never see her again. But at the time it seemed the most logical. What would he have been able to do aside from mourn her early? They'd had enough of those memories to serve them a lifetime, and selfishly, she wanted to make new ones, to make their last few days stand out. And it had been good. At least for her.

"Not that I didn't want to," he replied, taking into account the look that swept onto her face.

"I could tell."

"Bonnie—"

"It's okay," she said, cutting him off with a dismissive wave of her hand. She didn't want to hear some guilt-driven apology and nor was she expecting one. "I get it."

"I just… with everything that's happened to Elena, seeing you—it seemed easier to make a run for it."

That, Bonnie knew, was a Gilbert trait. They never faced their issues head on, they played around it, worked their way up to it until it was too late or someone else got hurt in the process.

"You don't owe me an explanation," she countered.

He peered down at the ground, stealing a glance at the crypt and then in the direction Caroline and Stefan walked off. "I missed you," he said once his eyes settled on her again.

Bonnie found herself incapable of believing that as she'd heard all about his sleazy coping methods. Humanity-off Caroline had spilled the beans. Bonnie shouldn't have been surprised, sex was and always had been Jeremy's go-to means of resolving things. And she, too, had been guilty of using it, using him, as a means of comfort. That was what she did in her last few days, wasn't it? She took all she could from him and prayed that it would blanket her from the unavoidable, and yet, it did nothing to stave that fear or to ready her for death. She didn't suppose anyone would be ready when they're staring it in the face, when there is no way or means to turn back.

"I missed you, too," she said, smiling back softly.

They stayed staring at one another for a few seconds, neither moving to hug the other or provide them with comfort, no longer knowing how. Could they fall into those patterns when they hadn't been there for each other in so long? Would it be that simple after everything Bonnie did? She knew she didn't want it, that she needed to find a means to stand on her own two feet without relying on anyone else for emotional sustenance. It's what she needed in the past, what she felt—and could now admit—he didn't understand, and why she stuck to their relationship for so long, even when she couldn't trust him in some aspects. _Unimportant_ aspects.

"I should get going," she said, snapping out of her musing, gesturing to the right and in direction of the small car park nestled within the line of trees. "Caroline and Stefan are probably waiting for me."

"Actually I told them I would take you home. That's okay, right?"

She nodded and smiled to herself as she turned away from him, slowly walking back to the grungy parking area.

"Elena's car?" Bonnie climbed into the passenger seat, pulled the door and her seatbelt on.

"Alaric gave it to me," he said and slid the keys into the ignition, a McDonald's packet lying strewn in the backseat, along with an open clothes bag and Elena's laptop.

"Oh." Ric was a mess this morning, quick in his goodbye and hardly coherent. "Did he say anything to you about last night? He hasn't been talking much and we're all really worried."

"You mean about Jo? About his life being over? No."

"Then how did the keys come about?"

"He threw them at my head."

"You're kidding me," Bonnie said with a subtle frown, not liking the fact that Alaric still appeared so violent or indifferent. That was unlike him and from what she'd seen yesterday – not at all good for any of them.

"Actually, I am. Damon gave it to me."

She arched a brow, surprised that Damon would think to do anything for Jeremy now that Elena was gone.

"I didn't leave him with much of a choice," he explained, his hands resting on the steering wheel as he turned to regard me again. "So where to?"

"The Boardinghouse."

"You're living there now?"

"No. Well… sort of camping out."

"Why?" Not at all subtle in his approach, like he was fishing for something he already knew.

"I guess I spent so much time there in nineteen-ninety-four that it feels like home now."

He looked interested but made no attempt to enquire about it. She hated that.

"And that's it?"

She chuckled softly, reaching forward to turn on the radio, unaffected by the look of offense that flashed across his face. She couldn't bring herself to feel guilty for what she was doing or planned to do for Kai. "What more is there?"

"How about the psychopath you're keeping locked up in their basement?" he asked, purposely busying himself with the steering as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"Who spilled? Damon or Matt?"

He didn't look happy to tell, and for a moment she could see he was wrestling with the notion. "Damon."

"Is that why you're here, then? Why you came to the cemetery?"

"I wanted to make sure you were okay."

She threw him a glance. If he wanted to make sure she was okay, he could have spoken to her this morning when he'd seen her and before he decided to hightail it out of town. He hadn't.

"Also Damon thought I might be able to talk some sense into you."

She folded her arms across her chest and stared out the window. She wished they got there already. "I don't need a lecture."

"And I'm not going to give you one, Bonnie. But he killed Jo, he linked you and Elena, and he's the reason my sister can't be here anymore. Why she's stuck rotting in some coffin for the next however many years!"

Bonnie understood his anger and she knew anything she said from here on would make zero sense to him. "I know." She drew in a small breath. "But will murdering him solve anything? Does that not make us exactly like him? Like Damon? I've been there, Jeremy. I did it. That's why we're here to begin with and I'm trying to fix it."

"Trying to fix what, exactly?"

"I guess…" She gave some serious thought to the question everyone was plaguing her with. "Us."

We were both broken by each other. Who else was there to fix it?

Jeremy was silent the rest of the way to the Boardinghouse. Bonnie could tell he was still mad and wanted nothing more than to practice his hunter moves on Kai. He could be stubborn when he set his mind to something and she could tell that she'd lost him to whatever Damon force-fed him.

She climbed out of the car as soon as it pulled into the drive, walking around the front, planning to see him off, to reassure him that everything would be okay, and frowned as he got out. "You don't have to see me in."

"I'm not. Damon said I could stay for a few days. That it would probably help with Alaric—"

"What? Here?"

"You don't want me here?"

Actually, she didn't. Not if Kai was going to be running around. She couldn't trust him yet, and after seeing what Kai did to Tyler, she was afraid of what Jeremy would do—what he'd provoke.

"It's not that—" she started, seeing a knowing look flitter onto his face, as if he'd sensed her disapproval.

"I thought you were repairing him," Jeremy said.

"He isn't a dust buster," Bonnie retorted, unable to contain annoyance. "He's a person."

"A murderous bloodsucker witch of a person."

"Jeremy, please… I don't want to argue with you—"

"What is there to argue about? You've clearly got your hands full. You need help."

"I don't." Not the kind she was sure he'd want to give her. "Caroline is spotter."

"Okay," Jeremy moved to the back of the car, heaving his unzipped bag from the backseat.

"I'm not kidding about this, Jeremy."

"I know… and neither am I. I told you. I'm here for Alaric."

"You also told me you were leaving."

He shrugged and slammed the passenger door closed, slinging the bag over his shoulder as he went for the driver's door, removing the keys, locking the car, and pocketing it. Bonnie sighed, peering around, searching for Caroline or Stefan's car, and saw none. She guessed they hadn't made it back, yet. She headed for the front door, trailing after Jeremy, watching as he walked ahead and upstairs to claim his room. She didn't follow him, seeing no point in talking anymore and headed for the basement, desperate to make sure Kai was still there and not lurking around the house as she feared or had dreamed all night. /

By the animation and voices sounding from upstairs, Kai knew the morning came.

He hadn't moved much ever since he lay down on the cot and drifted off. He couldn't truly sleep any longer, so he kept himself dipped in a deep meditative state that allowed him to ignore the growing hunger. The Boardinghouse inhabitants left, and there was silence for long enough time if he wanted to get out and feed, but he wasn't inclined to cheat that much. He was still waiting to see their next step.

When the voices came back, he felt as good as asleep. They talked, and it came like a sound of a TV from another room when you are trying to catch some shuteye. A bit irritating, but not too much of a bother. Hunger was pretty demanding by then, and he found himself reluctant to surface and change his position with an arm beneath his head and another hand resting on his stomach. Vaguely, he recognized Jeremy's voice, but the words he uttered Kai ignored, not too interested. There was Bonnie's voice, too – arguing with him, from the tone of it, but Kai still didn't care much. He had a feeling he knew what it was about, anyway. Like a movie he had seen as a kid and could recollect if he wanted.

Soon enough someone approached the cell. Her faint scent tickled his nostrils, coaxing him to reality. However, he made no hint to let her know he was awake yet. He lay as he did with his eyes closed and waited.

Bonnie peered down at the undisturbed salt line as she approached the cell and then cast a glance inside. Was Kai still sleeping? It seemed highly unlikely, considering everything that happened today and the fact that he'd been without blood for so long. Also, he'd never been this silent, not even in nineteen-ninety-four when he was giving them the conversation go-around. Why wasn't he raging? Why wasn't he trying to blow up the house? Was the vervain still weakening him?

She stood there awhile, studying him, and he could literally sense her scrutiny like subtle charges tickling his skin. At last, she ventured with words.

"Can I assume you're waiting for me to step inside to check on you?" She narrowed her eyes on his figure, taking in his closed eyes and the practiced serenity on his face. He looked asleep. But even she knew that predators liked to lay in wait, and he'd been one long before he actually became one. "Because I can assure you that won't be happening." Not if she could help it or was able to keep a safe distance.

It was a little bit funny to him, and even a little bit pathetic, in a way someone chased up a tree by a pack of hungry wolves would lecture them from a cracked branch how they would never get to sink their teeth in her ass. The branch would crack eventually, and down she'll go.

Kai didn't stir or indicate he was awake. Inside the bubble of serenity and stillness he had cocooned himself in, he felt too good to make a useless effort.

When Kai didn't move at the sound of her voice, she opened her mouth to call him, to wake him up the conventional way. And yet some inkling of annoyance held her back. This wasn't some ill-timed sleepover. He was her hostage—well, sort of – at least until she could figure out how to get him to cooperate without gutting anyone.

Through the thick walls of his bubble, Kai still could catch a whiff of her uncertainty and wonder and wariness, all twirling together like differently colored coils of smoke.

Bonnie took a few deliberate steps away from the door and headed over to the freezer, wrenching free the unfinished blood bag from yesterday, eyeing the remaining contents wearily. She assumed he'd scent it and that unknowingly, if he was still asleep, those newfound senses of his would kick into overdrive.

"You must be hungry by now," she stated, nearing the door once more, pouring the blood out onto the dirty cement floor, really feeling the need to make an impact.

Liquid hit the floor, deafeningly in the quiet of the basement and echoing off the walls. The smell reached him and wrapped around his senses thickly, layer by layer, pulling at his guts. He stirred not, however – if he did, it was going to be worse. The smallest of smiles yet touched the corners of his mouth. "Not enough to salivate like a dog and dance before you on my hinder legs, tail waggling, for a rotten canned meal. I do prefer it warm and alive."

Bonnie couldn't help the small smile of satisfaction that spread onto her lips once he responded, euphoria that dimmed as his eyes opened lazily at half-mast to focus on her. He looked too relaxed, like he'd been waiting to see what she'd do.

"Have you slept well? You don't really look perky enough to tease me like you dare."

"Considering yesterday's gory adventure and the fact that I had to say goodbye to one of my best friends at the crack of dawn, I would say I look a lot like I feel. You on the other hand, don't look half as rundown or rabid as I expected," She closed her hand around the top of the plastic blood pack to seal it off and stared at him inquisitively, half-expecting a threat or an ultimatum.

Why wasn't he pulling this place apart brick by brick to get out? Most did. But not Kai. Maybe he was tired? Perhaps their little feasting session had gotten to him and he was starting to reconsider his actions? Could she be that hopeful? She guessed she had to start somewhere.

"You had a chance to escape last night, to make a run for it… and yet, you're still here."

Kai thought of his little night trip upstairs, peering at her with the same unchanging serene face.

"Not that I'm complaining, I prefer knowing where you are. I'm just… I'm inquisitive." And then, as if it should have been obvious enough, another thought came to her. "Is it the heretics? Are you waiting for them to make their grand entrance to save you? Because if so… they aren't here, Lily couldn't find them. They never made it." Or at least she thought they hadn't. Stefan had said as much. His mother was still out searching. Who knew what she was still doing? So long as she stayed away from Bonnie, FAR away, Bonnie didn't care.

Kai smiled a little. He knew about the heretics, about Lily, and none of it mattered to him. He knew how every question Bonnie offered him nibbled at her mind every moment she let it, and he liked her inquisitive. He liked her interest, even if it had to contain a bitter note of wariness and mistrust. That bitter note didn't spoil the dish. He could have talked – she got too used to his talking and expected it to start happening soon if she coaxed with questions – but at that moment, talking seemed an excessive effort. There were no clues he was eager to throw at her.

And so he smiled, and said nothing.

Bonnie furrowed her eyebrows when he didn't start rambling as he usually would. What was he doing now? Taking a vow of silence? Impossible! Or was it that she'd figured it out? That alarmed her. If the heretics were anything like Kai, if they were loitering around or something, then Bonnie's friends were screwed. She could barely contain Kai—or at least it had taken a hell of a lot of effort—she could only imagine how many others there were.

She stepped away from the doorway, turning her back on him, and went to retrieve another blood pack. She kept her back to him as she moved, heading toward the next cell where there was a new batch of vervain being grown. They needed it for their arsenal, along with wolfsbane also growing in there.

She glanced down at Jo and swallowed heavily, shaking off the morbidity that consumed her as she worked, crushing off the vervain to carefully throw it into the blood pack. It would sting as he drank, that was an unfortunate guarantee and something she wished he wouldn't be aware of, but what else was there to do? She couldn't afford to feed him and have him build strength. It was safer this way. She popped of the raw leaf into her mouth for extra measure, grimacing at the taste as she swallowed.

She closed the pack again, squeezing it to make sure it was okay and wouldn't break if she were to toss it, and headed back toward his cell. She tossed it inside without a word, suspecting it would be enough of a white flag for him to start talking and do away with his continued silence.

Kai never turned his eyes from her to watch the pack's short trajectory before it plopped on the floor like a dead thing. "I'm not your pet in a zoo, Bonnie, and don't pick up my food from the floor. The only chance to feed me off your palm goes with the offer of a live blood from your vein."

"I'm not trying to treat you like a housebroken pet," she argued, ignoring his comment about feeding from her and the anxious ache that shot through. She almost lost the ability to talk just thinking back on it. Bonnie glanced down at the pack on the floor, feeling as though its presence in some way contradicted what she was trying to do now that he mentioned it. "Think of it more as a bribe to get you talking and a way of making you comfortable? Besides Damon, Stefan and Caroline all live off this stuff, it just takes some getting used to. Also, it's less messy and easier on the population. Like takeaway. Phasmatus adducam." The pack shot from the floor and into her right hand. She dusted it off, wiping it on her shirt, making sure no dirt clung to it, and allowed for a smile to twitch onto her lips invitingly. "Moreover… I'm on vervain now, it wouldn't do you any good to feed on me."

"You like to decide for others, huh? The way everybody decides for you all your life?" Kai let out a quiet hem, as close to a laugh as he was willing to come. "I'm not your vampire friends, and I don't settle for what I don't want. Besides, you did offer it yourself, back in the barn. What, taking it back?"

She scowled momentarily, then composed herself back to a friendly mien. A hint of pretense Kai found himself disliking yet again.

"That was a one-time snack option," she said, glancing down at the pack, holding it between her two hands in an idle attempt to warm it up and rid it of its chill. "I wasn't exactly looking at it extensively. In fact, I can admit that it was nothing more of a martyring stall tactic. I was looking at saving some other girl or boy's poor neck—" Not that it worked. But it was the truth. "Here, now… different, more civilized scenario." She hugged the cool pack against her chest as if it were a suitable miss cuddles replacement and then dangled it between index and middle. "Why not be adventurous and explore your options? I could microwave it?"

Kai winced in a feeble disgust. "I've had a pack earlier and know I won't be having any more. That's final, so it's either you or whoever else I find to feed on – your choice."

'Did he miss the part where vervain was flowing in my system?' she reflected. And why was he talking as though he had options? He couldn't get out. She glanced down at the border of blood-red sand and then back to his relaxed state.

With the demeanor Kai upheld, he might have come off as too lazy to pay attention, but in truth, he did pay a lot of it to every detail. He noticed the ghost of surprise and dismay in her gaze at his condition. He noticed her eyes flick down to the salt border, assessing it, then back to him with a hint of disbelief and doubt. He could see her battling with herself or common sense while considering her options.

"Fine," she said after a lengthy consideration, deciding it best not to rile him up and make him uncooperative. She knew that wouldn't get them anywhere and they could play these games all day. "But from my palm or wrist only. No neck."

She glanced down at her hand, studying it, wondering if it would be painful, if it would nullify the neck bite and the sensations it stirred—and those damned commentaries—and keep things in perspective. "Deal?"

Kai let her stew for a few moments as he considered. He wasn't happy about it and didn't see why he had to resign himself to things he didn't want to accept. "As you said, I should explore my options, so I suppose I can take your wrist this once as a compromise, or a token of good will, you might say. But further on, I do insist on the neck."

Bonnie opened her mouth to object to his conditions. How was that even fair? It was her body, it should be her choice where he feeds from, especially if it was good-naturedly.

A small sneer creased his mouth. "Not without your presentation back in the barn, by the way. The image of that generous offering you made is forever scorched into my mind. All actions have consequences, you know. And so it does, now."

She gave a soft sound of disbelief. He hadn't wanted to bite her then, he'd openly dismissed the option, and now, unexpectedly, she was facing penalties? She didn't like it, she didn't like that Kai thought he was able to negotiate and take a semblance of control.

"You were so brave, so noble when you told me it'd be you or no one. It won me over. You aren't gonna take that away, are you, Bon? An act of higher sacrifice for higher good? For saving lives? Are you still into saving lives, Bon?"

"I'm still here, am I not?" she retorted. She ventured a look at the stairs, making sure they were still alone, not that she expected anyone—other than Caroline—to walk in on them. She didn't want to get caught feeding him, not when they were so quick to jump to assumptions and make things even more uncomfortable. Bonnie turned back to look at him, he still hadn't moved and she wasn't ready to cross the bloodied border again. She extended her right hand palm-up and beckoned him over wordlessly, aware that — like last time — he could very well pull her inside, but believing he wouldn't.

Kai smiled and made a tsking sound. "Aw, come on, Banzai. Trust breeds trust, remember? Your words. Come in here."

Bonnie licked her unexpectedly dry lips but made no move to lower her arm. Kai was right, that was what she'd been saying and yet she couldn't bring herself to heed his sardonic suggestion. He could turn on her on a dime. "And as we established, trust isn't something you or I can just hand over. Baby steps," she said, attempting to stand her ground and take back the control she'd undoubtedly lost the night before. "Besides, I'm still smarting from your last feeding session." She let him interpret that any way he chose, without explaining or further highlighting the subject. "I feel safer this side of the door."

"I'm disappointed, Bonnie. You locked me up in a cold, damp basement cell in the house full of people eager to kill me, and there you are talking about feeling safer?"

Put like that, it did sound a bit ridiculous, she thought, or it would, if he wasn't so powerful.

"I believe I'm the one with deeper trust issues here," he said, "given the very betrayal of yours that drove me to the things I've done. If you believe in your mission, you will come in and have no fear. I'm beyond trusting words. I'm more into actions these days."

She lowered her arm and pensively studied a spec of dirt on the floor, powerless to deflect the guilt that kicked in. Bonnie knew he was manipulating her, that he was going hard at getting what he wanted, and yet she still swayed. Then she stepped over the invisible border and into the confines of the cell, forcing herself to take security in the fact that there was vervain in her bloodstream. "I took a leap," she said, making no move to approach the cot, forcing herself to remain confident in spite of the urge she felt to jump back over the line. "You going to meet me halfway or keep pulling at those strings?"

Kai couldn't help a quiet laugh, swaying his legs off the cot. "Is that a leap? Looks more like a flinch." He got up and started towards her slowly. "Are you that afraid of me?"

Bonnie could admit to herself that she was. From the moment Kai revealed who he was, logic told her to be weary and she suspected she would never entirely shake herself free of it. _Not when what he's done is still so fresh in my mind._

"Or is it your friends stuffing you with their fears every minute of every day as if you're a toddler unable to think on your own? Tell me something, Bonnie – or better tell that to yourself: when was the last time they let you make a choice and follow it through without a friendly intervention? When was it not them who dictated you when you should live or die or throw your life off a cliff for greater good someone else believed in?" He stopped before her, holding her eyes with his. "Do you even believe in any decisions you make on your own, anymore? Or is it the eternal turning and spinning of wheels and pins inside your head comparing your choices to what they tell you is the right thing you should do?"

Bonnie narrowed her eyes slightly, observing his every step as he approached her, unsurprised by how composed he looked, how calculating and open. Like he was offering her impartial advice and not trying to stir. How did Kai even know this stuff? How was he even aware of all the intimate details? She never even told Damon how she felt in that regard and couldn't recollect a single instant when either of them brought it up. She saved that hurt for her journal, a form of therapy she started in nineteen-ninety-four after her first fight with Damon. That was the thing with that place, it left far too much time for a person to think, to meditate on the things that happened in their lives. She jotted down everything, things that happened before she even became a witch. She wondered now as he stopped a few steps away from her, if he'd read it or if by some cruel chance of fate he could read her mind. At this point, she probably wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter.

He cracked a sudden boyish smile she knew so well from the prison world, and beckoned. "Half the way – deal's a deal."

Besides the ever-present hint of wonder in her eyes, Bonnie tried to keep the wariness down as much as she could while her body betrayed her to Kai's ears. Her pulse picked up even more upon hearing him out, and he was sure her mind catalogued every word he uttered for later obsessing over. Just as he thought it would.

She stepped towards him when beckoned, and her eyes fell to his chest, widened. Her hand reached out tentatively to touch the shirt as if she were afraid it would blow in her face. He caught her hand with his gently before the tips of her fingers grazed the material, and winked at her with a jolly smile, stepping slightly to the side and peeling her sleeve up to her elbow.

Bonnie stiffened as soon as his hand enclosed around her wrist to stall the action, her eyes instinctively darting to his face, distracted by his wink and that pleasant smile that eased onto his lips. She blinked as if in a momentary daze as he pushed the material up her arm and out of the way, running his fingers along the inside of her wrist, rousing an assortment of indescribable tingles that mingled with her rampant nerves.

He felt her shiver. He touched his lips to her pulse point, skimming them teasingly against it as his gums itched and burned and hunger turned his innards over.

She shuddered a touch and stared at the top of his head, fighting the urge to close her eyes as his lips skimmed her skin and anticipation kicked in. Despite of what she convinced herself of, this time she wasn't worried about it hurting—not like she had before. Now she unconsciously feared the exact opposite reaction.

His teeth slung in her flesh with the same smooth ease as they did in her neck the day before. Kai heard her gasp and then lost himself in the taste washing through him like a summer gale; his eyes fluttered closed, a hum vibrating from the base of his throat into her wrist.

Before she could dive into her body's response, a gasp passed across her lips, her free hand automatically coming to rest against his side as his teeth latched onto her flesh. Generally, the second go-around wasn't as satisfying as the night before, but it wasn't as uncomfortable as she assumed and hoped it would be. She let him drink a few more mouthfuls and flattened her hand against his side, arranging to pinch him to keep him from going too far if the vervain didn't kick in speedily enough. She didn't want him to weaken her.

She tasted like a salty breeze in the hot day, fresh and rousing. Kai didn't notice the burning at once, but when it spread all over his mouth and down his esophagus like a heartburn, he remembered vervain. It didn't stop him – not for a while, until her hand pressed into his side, fingers digging gingerly.

Restraining a groan of simultaneous pleasure, discomfort and frustration, he pulled away, licking his lips. "I'll need a refill sooner this time – that was a kiddie portion." He gave a frivolous smile, making no move to step away from her or let go of her hand that still rested lightly in his.

Too perturbed by his nonchalance to care about the lack of distance or the fact that he hadn't let go of her wrist, she studied him in silence. Was Kai immune to vervain? Was it because of his part-witch factor? It seemed unlikely when he was still a vampire and magic was an addition, something that was unnatural, impossible for most of our kind. Except that he was something else entirely, maybe it was actually the witch side of him that sucked up the vampire side? But then why the need for death to turn?

She shook her head to clear it of the complex musing, offering him a smile in return, and gently removed her wrist from his hold, prudently inspecting the damage caused by his teeth as they started to fade. Caroline's blood was still in her system. "We'll have to remedy that later. I don't think I have much else to give, not until I get something of my own in my stomach." Something with more substance than a handful of grapes. That could wait though.

She took a deliberate step to the side and slipped a finger into her mouth to wet it, lightly rubbing at the drying blood, thoughtfully doing away with the evidence. She didn't want Jeremy to pick up on the signs if he happened to be waiting upstairs.

"Now that I've done my part, you'll quit it with the therapy sessions and get to hard tax?" she asked, remaining jovial, even going so far as to take a seat on the cot. "As in the heretics? Who are they? How many are there and where are they?"

Kai laughed. _Smooth, Bennett._ "They are six vampire mutants, like myself. Not too talkative – unlike myself – so there's not much I know that you don't already." The vervain burning was getting on his nerves, but he couldn't take care of it while she was here. He tried to ignore it and seated himself by her side, leaning back against the wall and setting his feet on the edge of the mattress.

Kai had been locked away with them for a week and he expected her to believe he didn't know much about them? This from someone who spent months observing Damon and her and their every habit before revealing himself? Bonnie watched him sit beside her, not at all feeling threatened anymore, surprised by how comfortable they'd gotten in the span of a minute and how the air shifted.

"However, there's not much you know in general, as far as I noticed," Kai continued, ruining the moment by knocking her back to reality. "Like, for instance, you've no clue what you're doing here with me. And all that pressure your friends are happily applying doesn't quite spur your thinking process, does it?"

She met his eyes, unflinching but feeling her cheeks warm at the accusation. He wasn't wrong. She didn't know what she planned to do with Kai. She knew what she wanted to do, what she'd been thinking when she snapped his neck instead of making his heart go pop in his chest cavity. But saving people from themselves was never an easy task and this was her first. Usually she was the one picking up the scrapes or sacrificing herself when things weren't repairable anymore.

Kai looked at her jeeringly. "Come on, Bons, prove me wrong. What's the plan – you have one, right? Pull intel from me and then let Damon have his revenge and hope the finality of my death undoes the Elena spell? Well, first of all, I'm not giving out any intel for your blood – that wasn't the deal. The deal was that I'm not killing other people if you voluntarily become my donor. That I might accept, and that's it. I'm not here to help you, or be your friend, or ally, or fight the heretics off by your side. I'd rather see them turn this town to ashes, for all I care. Perhaps it's better off in ashes. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…" He smiled. "It might take all your troubles with it. Poetic."

Bonnie swayed between fury and acceptance at his closing proclamation. She wasn't expecting Kai to be her friend, redeemed or otherwise, in fact, everything she was doing was for her and her alone.

"You're right about one thing. I don't have a plan for you," she supplied and after a second's contemplation, her voice surprisingly neutral. "And I don't know what I'm doing. I don't usually go around trying to find redeeming qualities in the big bad. I don't negotiate and I'm not quick to forgive."

Kai smiled imperceptibly. _Oh, but you do negotiate, Bon._

"As for the heretics," she said, choosing to ignore his commentary about her friends and their murder, "we've faced a lot over the last two years. Murderous doppelgangers, hybrids, a kamikaze coven, a thousand-year-old witch hell-bent on mind control, and you. We might be slow on figuring it out and a little messy on our execution, but we'll get there. With or without your help." Or she would.

Bonnie pushed off the cot and glanced down at his chest in passing, once again taking in his unmarred shirt, choosing to say nothing in regards to what she now believed as she headed for the door.

Kai observed her go; a strange amusement flittered in him, like a butterfly over a flower lightly touching it with the tips of its legs. "Slow's the key word – you got that right, so damn right," he said, stretching on the cot and assuming his lounging position she found him in.

Bonnie stopped before the door and turned to look at him.

"And it will ensure your Scooby-gang's loss because those heretics won't play around or require time for some grand spell or bother bending your thoughts to amuse themselves. Think about it: if you'd been kept in a prison world for more than a hundred years just because you were an outcast mutant, would you be keen on waiting for do-gooders to thwart your vengeance plans by killing or imprisoning you yet again when you're finally free? I think this time it's safe to say you're screwed beyond all hells and heavens. I know it. You know it, too – even if you don't wanna admit it to yourself. Trust your intuition, Bonnie. I bet it was the favorite lesson of your Grams. Not optimism, or pessimism, or wishful thinking, or hope – none of it. Just raw logic, pure facts. You weren't at the wedding – I give you that to justify the confidence you show now. Mere confidence is fragile without power to back it up, and if we compare the power of six Kais to that of one Bonnie - … well." A shark-like smile spread slowly over his mouth. "Do the math."


	14. Chapter 14

Bonnie recoiled internally, loathing the fact that Kai was right and that he looked so damned smug about it. She desired to slap that smile off his face, to throw the words back at him and to prove herself in some way—not for his sake—but her own. All of which dissipated as the seconds ticked by, giving way to fear and less of an inkling to leave – as if she were scared of what would happen once she did and what she might find upstairs.

As Kai gave the last phrase, she looked to him as if he slapped her. He could sense emotions boiling in her like water in a pot that's whistling and jerking on the burner. Her expression was that of a witch already imagining how his intestines would look being pulled out of his mouth. Her anger elated Kai. He hit the bull's eye again. He felt he couldn't miss.

"Bonnie?"

She blinked and turned her head in the direction of the curious and slightly accusatory voice. "Jeremy?!"

The surprise on the witches' faces was identical before Bonnie turned to see Jeremy approaching in his ever annoyed strut and the same annoyed expression that seemed to be the only one Jeremy knew how to compose.

Jeremy's eyes edged past her, zeroing in on Kai like the predator he could be on occasions, all the anger he felt about Elena having taken an impulse hold of him. Bonnie had been dealing with his moods long enough to see it right away.

Exasperation popped in Kai like a balloon, letting out a whiff of poison. She said she had locked the basement down, and yet every damn motherfucker could sneak in and disturb his work. And Kai was getting so close.

Jeremy fixed her with an I'll-deal-with-you-later glare and stared past her at the hybrid, heating up towards fury. He was going to march to Kai and possibly do his best to gut the bastard alive, but Bonnie would have none of it.

"No," she commanded, knocking him back over the salt border and into a clumsy stumble with no more than a dismissive flick of the wrist. She didn't want to hurt him, but to try and calm him down on the wrong side was only asking for him to get his neck snapped or worse. Jeremy stared at Bonnie, confused, betrayed and angered, then returned his eyes to Kai, deciding to focus it all on the one really responsible. He barely noticed Bonnie stepping forth to him and pressing her palm on his chest to stave any action he might be cooking.

"You might as well have murdered my sister, you piece of shit!"

Kai smiled. "Oh, that righteous ire, gotta love that! I know it hurts so much not to see your sister – I can relate. But let me ask, where were you with your love and support when she was up and running?"

Jeremy's muscles bunched beneath Bonnie's restraining hand, his entire body stiffening in response to Kai's continued bait, a muscle in his jaw ticking with unreserved hatred.

"When Bonnie you were risking both our lives for came back? When she had to deal with all her traumas and hurts and reacquaint herself with that world anew – because living in a prison world even for a week twists your perception out of focus – that you can also trust me on. Where. Were you?"

Bonnie was surprised to find that, despite what she said and in spite of her voicemail to wish Jeremy well with his educational endeavors, she did selfishly want him to be there for her in those times her world spun out of control.

"Moping around and drowning your poor wronged ass in booze and random sex? Or taking that righteous anger out on whatever abomination you could track down? Where were you when your sister and your girl needed you most?"

With a dark, red-glowing glee, Kai saw he was about to throw Bonnie aside like a kitten and rush into his cell. Kai didn't mind putting him back to his place. Hell, he wished to do more than that.

Bonnie scarcely had time to muse on Jeremy's extracurricular activities—of which she only knew of one—and the humiliation that came from everyone else being so well informed, too, before she was shoved aside. Bonnie toppled over, wincing as she hit the ground, unprepared for Jeremy's fury or his unrestrained whim as he dashed into the cell.

"Jeremy!" she shrieked with panic, ignoring the ache in her knees as she dashed for the open doorway, colliding with the doorframe, glad the salt had held in Jeremy's attack and that at least one spell was in effect.

Jeremy already had Kai by the collar and was hauling him off the cot, all fists and no weapon to defend himself from Kai's fangs if the newly turned vampire should feel inclined to tuck into his neck. Kai was grinning, and that was a red cloth for the bull.

"Phasmatus separate!" Bonnie commanded, not wanting to give the blood-lusting vampire witch any time to conjure up one of his creative responses, swiftly throwing them apart. They propelled in opposite directions, hit the wall and fell down.

Kai got up leisurely, laughing. The damn vervain was still a bit of an inconvenience. _I guess you'll have to be my magic, Bonbon_ , he thought. "Aggression seems to be your first and only answer to everything, Jeremy," he said out loud and shook his head with a feigned disappointment. "That's not healthy, not only for a hunter who should keep a cool head, but for a guy riding that righteous horse you trotted on here. But what's remarkable about aggression is how often it bursts out when your opponent is right. You got nothing else to justify yourself with, and thus you want to shut me up. You selfishly wanted Bonnie to live, so that you could run away, drink your brain to trash, fuck barmaids and think you've done all you could and saved her and thus it's up to her to chase your noble ass around to thank for it."

Bonnie walked over to Jeremy who had a hand pressed to the back of his head to nurse an oncoming headache, his body having collided with the wall a lot harder than that of the robust vampire. That was the thing, hunters were christened and possessed an inkling of supernatural bloodlust to help them with some speed and focus, but nothing of the sort you read in comics or otherwise. Jeremy, unlike Kai, was still very breakable.

Bonnie crouched beside Jeremy, reaching out to touch a hand to the back of his head, checking to make sure she hadn't unintentionally cracked open his skull, and winced as he jerked away from her, staggering to his feet. He was mad and for what she was sure, or knew about, it was as if he didn't see her—as if he didn't care to see her.

Kai sneered, enjoying the homicidal glower in Jeremy's eyes as he stood like an enraged bull ready to dig his hooves into the sand and smack Kai dead.

"It's so typical for you and your sister both," Kai remarked. "You take your own petty frustrations to a sky level and treat them like the end of the world and believe that people around you have to make themselves crazy over your hurt feelings and problems while forgetting their own. And when that doesn't happen, you snap and go rampant and expect your friends to still chase you around to soothe your aches."

A beast was waking up in young Gilbert. His eyes were bulging with rage that had to make him run a fever or something. "You don't know anything about me!" he yelled. "Or my sister! You don't talk about her!" Bonnie was all over him, but to him she didn't exist. He started toward Kai again, unmindful of her hands clasping at his shirt and her grimaces of pain as he dragged her in his wake like a rowboat tied to a cruise liner.

Pain shot up her arm as he jerked her off balance and nearly sent her tumbling to the floor a second time. It was like trying to barricade a moving train and even worse than when he first began to display his hunter-type urges.

"Let it go, Jeremy. Let it go!" she repeated, placing herself between them and on his way to make sure he wouldn't be able to get to Kai, not unless he sought to physically throw her out of the way. For an instant – from the look in his raging eyes – she thought he might. "He isn't worth it. Don't play into his hands." She was sure Kai was toying with him, doing away of what she supposed was his jail-time boredom, but she knew that if he wanted to, he'd have ripped Jeremy's spine out by now.

The smile Kai kept on for Jeremy's benefit didn't falter, but deep down, Bonnie's words stung. After all the times of his telling her the truth, she still chose their side – the side of those who threw her in front of the train every time something went wrong in their lives. Kai felt a fury of his own crawl closer, like a jaguar that spotted a monkey for dinner, and made an effort to push it away.

Jeremy finally noticed her and stared between them, as if reading something written in the air that they had been keeping a secret from him. Repulsion came through on his face as if he has perceived she has been cheating on him with his worst enemy. That expression gave Kai a bigger grin. Jeremy shook her off and stormed out, thumping noisily.

Kai wasn't off with his Gilbert reading and what they'd done to her and others around them for years, but it was part of their personality and what their friends allowed them to do. Bonnie was guiltier of that than most, and to be frank, there was very little to be done to change that now. All she could do was stand her ground. And she would. But she couldn't do so if Jeremy was going to force her into questionable positions.

Bonnie looked at Kai, both aggravated and tired. "Was that really necessary? Or do you want to make sure I'm miserable from every angle?"

"Of course not!" Kai gave a smile that hinted it might have been indeed that. Then he shook his head as if simultaneously amused and disappointed. "You're miserable not because of what I do, but because you let them make you as miserable as it gets. It's their habit to push you around and think you'll take it – because you love them. Because they're your family. You know, it's a funny thing about family: they can hurt you most because you let them. You love them and can't fight it, and in the end it brings you more pain. Know why?"

Bonnie refrained from interjecting and folded her arms across her chest, watching as he went to sit down, wondering if that was how he felt about the situation with his family. Did he murder them because they pushed him too far? Because in his own sick way he wanted nothing more than their acceptance and love? Wasn't that the root of what every person at their core wanted?

"They hate changes," he supplied. "We all change, and they do. But when they observe you from early age, be it your friends or parents, they get used to a certain image of you."

Bonnie remembered Elena's humanity-off words to her some years back at the prom when Bonnie botched bringing Jeremy back the second time and refused to give into Silas's cruel temptations to bring down the other side.

'I thought you were gonna bring Jeremy back, but it turned out you were just a brainwashed crazy person, so technically you're a walking reminder of all the horrible things that have happened to me.'

Elena apologized to her, but in some way, those words stuck with Bonnie and fueled her decisions. She didn't want to dismay Elena, her friends or family, especially when they needed so much from her.

"And when you change – even if for the better – they freak out and do all they can to hammer you back into the slot they've reserved for you in their minds. And that's what you've been doing all your life – sitting in that slot to make everybody happy while this everybody kept changing, getting stronger, having the time of their lives. And all their problems were for you to sort out because there's not much else you could do in that slot they kept for you."

Kai pulled another offhanded talk Bonnie'd had with Elena only last week to the forefront of her mind—small and unintentional—but it had gotten to her nonetheless and hurt more than she cared to think about: 'You were stuck there all by yourself while we were back here, living our lives.'

Bonnie scoffed delicately at the thought, hating how easily Kai hit things on the nail and how spending all that time getting to know them, peeking into their lives had given him a Silas-type edge.

She wasn't even back a full twenty-four hours and Damon had been trying to recruit her for his kamikaze mission to nineteen-o-three. As if she hadn't spent enough time trying to get out of another prison world. What made him think she'd be eager to jump into the next? And had he even cared? No. He had seen his mother and lost his mind. Bonnie could understand the urgency, she could even empathize, but there was a part of her that was hurt. That wanted to disappear and take to the road. But where would she go? Damon was—or at least had been—the one person she knew could sympathize with her and recognize what she was going through. Bonnie needed that from him, wanted it more than she could think to put into actual words.

"Now go ahead and tell me I couldn't be more wrong." Kai lay down, an arm under his head, smiling nonchalantly at her.

"You couldn't be more wrong," she parroted sarcastically, flashing him an artificial grin, one meant to mimic his taunting merriment and to downplay the effects of his words. She didn't linger for his response and headed for the door again, refusing to let him dissect how much his perception had gotten to her.

Kai read Bonnie's body language hungrily, picking out the signs he sought like diamonds from a pile of glass shards. She tried hard to stay detached, but either her eyes, or her pulse, or her breath betrayed her. He concluded every arrow he sent met its target.

"Don't forget my refill for later, Bonsy! You don't want me too hungry," he called after her in a chipper voice. He wasn't going to say any more. Not right now – that would be excessive. No matter how impatient this little cell made him feel, it was a very delicate work where Bonnie Bennett was concerned. A mechanism as fine as hers demanded finer instruments and a great amount of patience. It was hard – patience wasn't his favorite exercise, all things considered – but it made the game more interesting, nonetheless.

Kai let out a long relaxed exhale and closed his eyes for more idle meditation, a satisfied smile dimming slowly on his lips. /

Jeremy was nowhere to be found once Bonnie reached the parlor, and nor did it appear as if anyone else was around. She was grateful for that. With Kai fed and settled, she could head over to her house, grab some clothes, her grimoire, and get a head start on finding a way to protect herself and her friends from the heretics.

She headed for the garage, throwing open the white box that stored their car keys, and picked one or two at random. None of them had modern buttons, nothing she could merely push to make her selection easier. Typical. In some instances, the Salvatores were up-to-date and in others – they continued to live in the past.

"Need a ride, witch?" a voice said from out of nowhere amidst her struggle.

"No," she answered, snubbing the loquacious culprit behind her.

"Then is theft something you do when you're not collecting murderers?"

"Murderers? Don't you mean murderer. As in singular. And it's not theft, it's aloan."

"What, you're above asking?"

"Can I borrow one of your cars?" she asked, making sure not to look at him, knowing that if she did, she'd be angry all over again and reminded how she now had more than fifty other people's lives on her conscience.

"No," Damon answered, sounding familiarly proud of himself and agitated all at once. "And risk having you come back with the full-fledged assortment of archenemies? I can't trust your judgement."

She sighed with exasperation and stowed both keys into her palm, walking over to the brown Ford parked at the very end of the six-space garage. It didn't look like either Damon's or Stefan's taste, and strangely enough, it appeared rather clean on the outside – like it was regularly washed down or polished.

"Where are you going?"

"Home." She inserted the first set of keys to try and unlock the door, jiggling it around a bit before trying the second. "I need a 'you'-free shower and a couple changes of clothes."

"You don't have a home," Damon indicated as he appeared next to her, applying a steadfast vampire-type grip to the door handle. "Not until you get that cockroach out of my basement and into the nearest shallow grave."

"I told you," she concentrated on the cagy hand preventing her from leaving. Damon's eyes widened, his mouth falling open with a yelp as he jumped back from the car. "I'm not killing Kai."

He snarled.

"And nor am I looking to fight with you." She could. She could have nonchalantly mentioned Jeremy and reinforced the fact that Damon was a jackass and a hypocrite and that she didn't want to see him. But she didn't have the energy for it and nor did she think he would bother to give her space again – not with Elena out of the picture.

"What if he tries to escape while you're away?" Damon asked, shaking off his crumbling pride and irritation. "You've been out all morning, shouldn't you at least stay to make sure he doesn't do anything."

"He won't," she replied, hoping that to be true. "And I won't be gone that long. An hour tops. Less probably."

She climbed into the driver's seat of the Ford, recalling, as she peered around inside, that Zach Salvatore used to drive one. This was his car. Damon stood observing her as she slipped the key into the ignition, his eyes boring into her through the windshield as she pulled out of the garage and headed for her father's house.

Between Damon and Jeremy, she suspected she would have zero freedom or rest, and they'd be breathing down her neck until she kowtowed to their wishes. /

A couple of hours passed since Bonnie had seen Jeremy or spoken to Damon when she reluctantly returned to chez Salvatore. Caroline brought her a takeout, a little something extra after Stefan had taken her to lunch, thinking that Jeremy and Bonnie needed to talk.

"So… how was it?"

"It wasn't," Bonnie said, knowing full well what the blonde was referring to and who.

"You mean there were no sparks and 'welcome home I haven't seen you in months' sex?"

Bonnie looked up at Caroline, arching her eyebrows as if to say, 'Really?'

"Alright. No sex. But there was a spark, right?"

"No."

"Because of Elena?"

"Losing your sister to a sleeping beauty curse attached to your ex-dead girlfriend would put a damper on anyone's libido. But no, I don't think Elena has anything to do with it. He's moved on."

Caroline had the decency to look ashamed and then added: "He's only been gone a month!"

"A lot can change in a month," Bonnie answered, peeling the foil from the top of the pasta.

"So… what did he say exactly?"

"That Damon told him he needed a hand with Alaric."

"And you believed him?"

"Certainly. I wouldn't put it past Damon to try and complicate things for me."

"And are you squirming?" Caroline asked, studying her face, trying to gauge if she'd changed her mind.

"No. At least not where Damon is concerned."

Bonnie picked up the plastic fork and tucked into the spinach and feta pasta. "Besides," she added between bites, "Alaric could use more family around him."

"Then what's with all the witchy-woo research face?"

"Lily."

"As in long last 'allegedly died because of some eighteen-hundred disease' Mama Salvatore?"

"As in psychopath hell-bent on searching for her destructive family."

Caroline stared at her blankly, frowning as if she were missing some huge neon clue. Typical. Somewhere along the way Bonnie was the only one that thought of the repercussions.

"What are you—"

"Have you not been listening?" Bonnie enquired teasingly, seeing Caroline's cheeks redden with obvious embarrassment. "It's okay, I don't suppose there has been time to clue you in. It's been a madhouse."

"No, I mean… I know who they are… or at least I know Lily is looking for them."

"And she hasn't found them?"

"Not as far as I am aware. After things went down at the wedding, Enzo kidnapped Stefan and me to recruit our help. When we left she was running around at the docks."

Bonnie's heart skipped a beat, her appetite all of a sudden dispersing, her grip loosening on the fork.

"Bonnie? Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she replied, forcing aside the transitional lightheadedness that came from her panic. "I just—I need some water." She pushed the food away, got off the bed, and walked toward the bathroom. "You should call Enzo," she said from her bent over position at the sink.

"I should?" Caroline echoed, sounding rather muddled, having missed how much trouble they were in and the fact that things went far beyond some mad woman seeking out a couple of beloved children.

"You should," Bonnie added, splashing water in her face, wishing she could slow her overactive imagination down and the all-consuming fear. Lily would not come for her—not unless she was still busy searching.

"And say what? Stefan and Lily didn't leave on good terms, in fact, she pretty much disowned him and ran off," Caroline explained, appearing in the bathroom doorway behind Bonnie.

Bonnie peered into the mirror, smiling. "Just tell him that Stefan is concerned about Lily and that you're doing your duty as a friend and potential lover to make sure that his mother is okay. Work your charm."

Caroline looked doubtful, as if she feared Enzo wouldn't believe her or as if she didn't believe Bonnie.

"Caroline. You've seen what Kai can do. What do you think will happen if there are six other people running around with the same potential?"

Caroline swallowed and dropped her gaze to the floor, her face having lost any and all innocence. Bonnie wished she could live in that pink-glasses bubble, too, at times. "And what if she found them?"

"Then I don't know," Bonnie admitted with a dry laugh, reaching for the towel, using it to dab at her face and neck. She didn't know what to do with Kai, she had no idea how to break Elena's spell, and she wouldn't know where to even start with the heretics. No one else has thought about it yet, not in the way that it should be approached, but Bonnie knew: once they did, they would come to her, that they'd come expecting more answers. And for right now, she had none.

Caroline called Enzo once or twice but he didn't answer. She stayed with Bonnie for an hour, watching her page through her grimoire until the blonde got tired and excused herself to get some sleep.

It was near on nine o' clock when Bonnie emerged from her designated room again and decided to feed Kai again. There was only so much time he could take down there alone—she didn't want him getting antsy—and she'd been avoiding him most the day. Along with the rest of the men in her life – save for Stefan.

She approached the stairwell and cursed to herself when she saw the slumped figure seated on the top stairs. He had a bottle clutched in one hand, his phone with a couple of images in another.

"He might as well have killed her," Jeremy mumbled, and for a second, Bonnie thought he was talking to himself. It was only as he turned back to look at her that she gathered otherwise. "I'll never see her again—not as long as…"

'As long as you're alive?' she concluded for him in her head. She suspected that was the thought on everyone's mind – aside from Caroline's. She'd been sad about Elena's dilemma, but she wasn't in mourning, convinced that once Bonnie had lived her life—and died a greying old lady on some equally rickety porch—she'd see her again. Neither Jeremy, Matt nor Bonnie had that kind of luxury. Not at this point in their lives and not unless they turned. But what if Bonnie was to become a vampire? Would Elena remain in status? Would the spell break? And most importantly, did she, Bonnie, want to? Not particularly. And in fact, the idea repulsed her.

She took a seat beside him on the stair and rested her hands in her lap.

"Damon said you were looking into a way to break the curse," Jeremy commented.

Bonnie scowled faintly, infuriated that Damon would feed him such lies and that he'd force her into this position. How was she supposed to tell Jeremy that she wasn't looking? That until she was sure they could protect themselves from the heretics, from Kai, she wouldn't be able to focus on the linking spell. How was she supposed to make him understand? "Damon _hopes_ that I will find a way to break it."

"That's not the way he worded it."

"You can't believe everything he says, Jer."

"I know. But I believe in you." Bonnie might have smiled if she didn't see a look of touchiness in his eye. "And you've done it before. You brought me back. You brought all of _us_ back!"

"This is different," she murmured.

"How?" he spat, looking starry-eyed and naïve, as if he hadn't witnessed her nearly killing herself every time.

"She isn't dead. Elena's just… she's sleeping."

"For fifty years?"

"You might not have to wait that long," she added bluntly, hating that there was a limit on her life, that from out of nowhere she accumulated an expiry date. "Given my luck I could die tomorrow and all this fuss will be over."

"What's gotten into you?" Jeremy asked as if she offended him with her attitude.

She chuckled softly to keep from crying, to keep from giving into the deep-rooted loneliness. She missed her grams.

"I'm just tired, Jer," she replied, bringing her hands to her face, scrubbing them against her closed eyelids, and then stood. At twenty, it felt she was going on forty.

"Where are you going?" he asked, a small frown on his drunken brow. That was the second time she was asked that tonight, and with the same condescendingly accusing tone – as if she were being monitored.

"Downstairs."

He trailed after her, practically slipping off the last stair. She winced and refrained from reaching out to grab a hold of his shoulder. She didn't think he'd accept her help, anyway.

"Where's Damon?" she asked as he followed her into the parlor. Bonnie needed to pour herself a drink, to work up a little Dutch courage and prepare for the next stipulation of her deal with Kai.

"With Alaric. With Stefan," he said, bringing the bottle to his lips, taking two large gulps. "Speaking of: does Alaric know Kai is here? That you're protecting his wife's murderer?"

"You didn't tell him, did you?" she asked, suddenly fearing he might have mentioned it and that things would escalate. Damon, she knew, was relying on the pressure – as always, he was trying to break her.

"I didn't know that he wasn't aware."

"Fuck." Bonnie poured herself a drink, downing it in one go.

Jeremy watched her with glassy interest. "He said you staked him. That he saw you."

Bonnie flushed and exhaled deeply, pouring herself a refill. "It was just an illusion."

"For who?" Jeremy asked.

"You didn't see his face, Jer. He was broken. Absolutely lost. I wanted to give him a little peace… a break."

"A break from what? The death of his wife?"

"No… I mean, I just… I wanted to… I was trying to help him. I was trying to keep Alaric from getting himself killed or from hurting anyone else."

"Then maybe," Jeremy began, raising the bottle once more, kicking his legs up onto the couch cushion, "you should have actually killed Kai. The only thing that Alaric needs protection from is downstairs."

Bonnie closed her eyes and downed her second drink, hating that this conversation had been fed to him and implanted in his brain. It wasn't all Jeremy – it couldn't be. She set the glass aside.

"So how did he take it?" she asked instead, forging feeding into his lure.

"Damon and Stefan are with him."

"Right. Here? As in the Boardinghouse?"

"They decided it might be best to keep him at his place for now. Away from you. And away from the temptation of charging downstairs."

"Of course," she replied, wondering when that had happened and how soon after she'd seen Damon. Caroline hadn't said anything, so Bonnie assumed Stefan hadn't had time to fill her in yet. "Well… I'd better—" she gestured to the exit, drawing her eyes from his, hoping Jeremy would pick up on the mallet-sized hint and leave her in peace. At least for now.

She paused as she stepped into the foyer, making sure he wasn't following her, and then headed down into the basement again, her eyes instinctively taking in the salt border in the dim light.

She should have brought Kai a book or something, knowing that idle hands wouldn't make much for good.


	15. Chapter 15

**_A/N:_ **_Before we get to the update we just want to extend our many thanks to the following people for their wonderful reviews. Frust-sheep, jordanjanellejoy, Melika, itscalledkarma, pennytree, bonkai addict and everyone that's taken the time to leave us a review. We appreciate the time you take to leave such insightful messages. It's our creative bread and butter._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 15**

Kai broke into a wide, jolly smile when Bonnie showed face at his cell's door. "Oh, hey, Bonnie! I almost thought you decided to get down to testing your battered luck and keep me waiting until the Judgment Day – which might come sooner than any of us suspect. I'm bored and almost starving – this combination is particularly explosive, I'll let you know. I hope you managed to get stuffed today because I really need a nice snack."

How did he maintain such a happy farce at every occasion? Bonnie guessed solitude could do that to you in most instances, but she also knew how quickly that could change. It made her wonder how long she had before his patience would wear out.

She assumed the vervain was still in her system so didn't bother to go to the second cell. She signed softly remembering the body within, a figure that had been all but forgotten by her for today. They were going to have to do something with her soon. Bonnie worried that Jo was hovering around, unable to find peace. The witch pushed that thought aside for now.

He sat up, legs swinging off the cot, and patted the mattress next to him. "C'mere and tell me all about how wonderful your day has been."

"Wonderful?" she echoed with an ironic yet weary sigh, a small smile twitching onto her lips. "Can you not hear what is happening upstairs?" It would be in her favor if he didn't – she knew that now, but what were the chances? She hadn't made provision for that and he wasn't a half bad vampire. Bonnie guessed it didn't take much to start working on controlling your senses or getting used to them. At least he didn't appear to have that problem.

Kai wanted to respond, but then didn't, caught with observation of how her air of self-assuredness started to melt once she went for the seat he patted. She was nervous and it tickled his fancy in just the right way. He liked to see her display power, but a shy Bonnie was a no less precious sight. And a rich, fruitful soil to plant some crops.

She walked into the small room without any of her earlier hesitation, her heart abruptly skipping a furtive beat as an image of him feeding from her neck sprung to mind. _I didn't need that._

'It's fine. Don't think about it' she chided herself internally. 'Don't give it more thought than it deserves. It's feeding. You're Food. You're a vamp takeout. No more than that bloody pasta you didn't finish.' Fucking Damon and Caroline. Couldn't they have kept their mouths shut?

She sat down beside him, feeling awkward and like some inexperienced virgin unsure of where to position herself or what to do. Did they jump right into it?

"Don't suppose you want to take a nibble at my wrist again?" she asked, allowing a lighthearted smile to play onto her lips, one that held some real seriousness behind it as she raised her arm.

Not much hope in there, but she felt the need to try. Her arm was raised towards him in invitation, but in her eyes Kai saw she resigned herself to the neck bite – the demand he gave in advance.

Bonnie broadened the smile, praying he'd be less of himself and take pity on her. She deserved it, didn't she? She was having a hard enough time as it was. She didn't need complications. She didn't need to second-guess her actions or reasoning. She didn't need for this to get weird or any more awkward than the three of them had already made it. Bonnie almost wished she'd provoked him to attack her.

He glanced at her outstretched offering, faking a second's consideration, then wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her onto his lap with dexterity of a performing magician. He held her to him, her back against his front, brushing her hair back from the right side of her face with his free hand.

She opened her mouth to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing and to command he release her or face the wrath of nine hells. Not that she was sure how to accomplish that when the overpowered bastard appeared to have a physical comeback for everything she did. He ingested vervain and nothing—it didn't even slow him down—not even a little. From what she could remember of their earlier feeding, he hadn't even sweat. It was as if Kai had eaten a little curry and was unfazed.

She tried — and unsuccessfully — to brush aside the shiver that raced through her as his fingertips skimmed the nape of her neck.

"Don't ask questions you know the answers to – that answer I gave you earlier and see no need to recite."

She snuck a look at the arm around her waist, all too aware of his chest molded against her back and the fact that she wasn't finding it all that unpleasant. She guessed it was different when she believed he was trying to be malicious. Oh, oh. She could feel her pulse start to race again. She stiffened in response, unable to force herself to relax.

Kai could feel her need to squirm, her anxiety coiled around her like something palpable, spurring her pulse into a quicker trot. Each response her body gave stimulated him to try and elicit more, to reach deeper and make her feel things she wouldn't be able to deny nor forget. Kai wanted to install sensations that would haunt her while he was out of sight, the imprint with his name on it that would be hot against the skin of her very soul.

"Maybe we should stand again," she blurted out before she could stop her brain from saying something so stupid. Bonnie didn't need him deliberately trying to turn things around on her as opposed to unintentionally. "This doesn't—can you even get a good grip? I mean… maybe I should, like, be on my knees—"

Definitely not where she wanted that to go. Bonnie heaved a sigh, brushing that off to correct her statement.

"Or not. You know what, just go. I mean… like, tuck in. Enjoy. Don't take too much."

Kai congratulated himself on refraining from laughing out loud. However, the images her unguarded words inspired were nowhere near laughable. They were outright hot, and he felt his body respond, shedding the restraint he was trying to maintain.

Kai touched his forehead to her temple, nuzzling against her skin behind the earlobe, bathing in her scent and his anticipation that fed arousal and more blood to the evidence of it she was sitting against. "Don't worry. It won't be anything like what the heretics dealt me. But I believe you already know as much."

Stroking his free hand down her arm to join his other around her waist, Kai teased her with a few light kisses against the pulsating vein, gratified at her hitching breaths and jumping heartbeat. He sucked at her skin, massaging it with his tongue to prepare for the bite. And when his fangs did sink in, she merely shuddered with a soft sigh.

Bonnie was loath to admit that he methodically soothed her fears when it came to feeding. At least where he was concerned. She worried about the other senses, the other parts of herself that revolted against sanity and didn't appear to dislike the nearness of his body or the prominent hardness nudging her ass quite as much as it did the day before. She could even close her eyes and pretend that it was someone else's fingertips travelling down her arm to secure itself around her waist, someone else's lips, tongue, and mouth tending to her shoulder and that thrashing pulse with deliberate care. And someone else's soft breathless sigh of unerring anticipation as his teeth broke through flesh. She didn't. She couldn't.

Unwittingly pulling her closer, as if possessively, he let the taste fill his awareness and eradicate everything else for a little moment. An uncontrolled quiet moan vibrated against the side of her neck as he drew swallow after swallow, ignoring the burn of vervain still guarding her blood from thieves like him. It was like a scalding liquid spice, too strong and flaying his throat as he drank, but Kai was able to detach it from the actual taste that sent his nerves into electric shimmering.

Consciously Bonnie should have been repulsed as his arm tightened around her, drinking deeper and with far more confidence than she remembered the first time. As if he were trying to possess her. She gasped softly, feeling the vibration of his hungry moan and the increasing evidence of such pleasure. Growing proof that made it impossible to remain passive for too long and in due course broke the spell.

She shifted subtly on his lap, making Kai shiver at the unexpected pleasant friction he was craving, and at the same time awakened him to reality.

He withdrew, licking his lips, and lingered there, his breath fanning hotly against the exposed crook of her neck while he battled his need for more. More than this, more than just her blood and restrained ability to touch her and make her react in spite of her intentions. The blood was still oozing from the bite, and Kai couldn't help but pick some up with a swipe of his tongue.

Bonnie blinked as if coming out of a shallow daze as he slid his teeth from her throat, his hot breath fanning the achy flesh. A sensation that she was getting accustomed to far quicker than she'd imagined or ever cared to think about. Bonnie was humming, as she had before, and all over. A peculiar liking that took seconds to shift to guilt.

Then Kai bit his wrist and brought it half an inch short of her lips. "Help yourself, witchling. Fair's fair."

She drew back the little that she could and turned her head away from his wrist, squelching the desire burning upon her tongue and reaching up to politely discard his offer.

She wanted it, he saw: her body wanted his blood, and it fueled his pleasure.

"I'm okay," she answered once she was able to find her voice, leaving no room for argument, simultaneously reaching down in attempt to remove his arm from her waist. All of a sudden feeling as though there was more to that offer, more to that 'fair's fair' hint. Bonnie needed the reminder on her neck, she needed the little ache of proof of what she was, what their association was, and didn't want him crawling any further under her skin than he already had – than _they_ had already planted him. "Well, now that your hunger is at least sated," she began as a means of deflection, pressing a hand to the side of her neck to stave of the bleeding, glad to find that when her fingers touched the spot, it hurt, "I'll see what I can do about your entertainment."

She wanted to escape, and despite knowing that it was probably working as it should, it annoyed him. Her stupid need to resist him was irritating, more than Kai anticipated. Fed by renewed vitality of the blood intake, his emotions wanted to run free, and it took effort to tame them and lock behind a thick door of outward calm friendliness.

"Since no one really taught you much in magic department, let me enlighten you a bit about a certain cosmic law," he said. "It stipulates we should pay for what we take. Your neck is bleeding, Banzai, therefore I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I avoid breaking yet another law of sorts and pay you for your kindness. It's not in my best interest to have my donor harmed and feel less than perfect due to what I've done. I mean, where'd be logic in that? And if you prefer the earlier way to receive the payment – I can relate."

He bit into his tongue hard, gently turning her head to him by the chin, and kissed her. The act shocked her at first, and his tongue met no resistance as it touched hers and shared the blood.

Bonnie had a suspicion to what he was referring when he said 'earlier payment'. And she'd denied it, swept the thought under the rug, convinced that their dream kiss was an incitement created by her punishing friends. And she might have continued to believe it, too, if he hadn't gone right to it. It wasn't conventionally sweet or profoundly knee-numbing, but it did stir and make her feel out of sorts. Even when she was doing her utmost to safeguard herself, to keep herself grounded and detached – she was failing.

Kai didn't make it long and pulled back, before she could do anything rash like snapping her teeth down on him. Smiling boyishly, he let her go and held his arms spread for her to slip off his lap. "Thank you, Bonnie."

"Thanks," she parroted in a murmur, touching a hand to her neck to check the bite mark as she stood up. The wound was no longer there, not externally, and yet it felt engrained beneath the flesh like a stamp, or worse – a brand. Bonnie frowned at herself and lowered her arm to her side, glancing down at her clothes as if to check for any signs of what they had done, and feeling irritatingly bare.

 _Dammit!_ Why was she letting their words get to her so much? And why hadn't she fought him on what she wanted? Why hadn't she bitten that obtrusive tongue as soon as it sought to coat her own?

 _Am I that lonely?_

"So…" she began, forcing herself to relax again, to compose a smile that matched his own cheerfulness. "About that entertainment. What can I get you?" A brief frown stole across her brow in thought. "And be reasonable," she added.

"If you could stay here with me, it's all entertainment I could dream of, and even more," he grinned shamelessly and lay down on the bunk on his side, propped on an elbow. "But frankly, I'd rather prefer to get out of here. Some nice hotel would do, with _shower_." He emphasized the last word with a wiggle of his eyebrows, eyeing her slyly. "I bet you could use an escape yourself by now, given how deep and troubled your frown is every time you come here." His grin slipped off to make space for an overly sympathetic mien.

And Bonnie could almost believe in his earnestness, she could almost trust that she accomplished something without really doing anything.

"Brace yourself, Banzai – it's only getting worse from here. The longer you keep me in the middle of their nest where they can't rip me to pieces and stomp each into the ground. As if that'd end their problems. If anything, it'd probably start a new spin of hell."

Worse than having her judgement called into question? Worse than losing one of her best friends? Worse than feeling like she had lost a part of herself and that she didn't know how to make things work anymore? Nothing was the same, not for Bonnie, and yet – everything was.

"You mean we aren't in hell and headed through already?" she jested, feeling in no way mollified. "In that case, I'll have to decline staying to keep you company." Not that she intended to stay. "And get back to work."

She whirled around, flashing him a grim smile, and unhurriedly made her way toward the stairs. /

"Where is he?!" a high-pitched womanly voice demanded before Bonnie even exited the basement. She didn't need to stop and figure who that question belonged to – she already knew.

Lily. Lily Salvatore. The _second_ monster to infiltrate her dreams.

Her heart hammered against her ribcage with unspoken fright when Bonnie recalled the lethal look in Lily's eyes. If not for Jo – she would have successfully killed Bonnie that night of the bachelorette's and everything Bonnie tried to reclaim would have been lost. Bonnie didn't like to think of the reason why or the loathing she progressively felt grow for Damon because of it. Nor did she like looking back to make sure Kai didn't follow her – in some way, she thought that he could.

Was he aware of the commotion upstairs? Was he in on it?

An acquainted battle cry pervaded the air to cut short her treacherous musings, followed by a shout of distress Bonnie acknowledged as Caroline's, and the sound of splintering furniture. Bonnie pushed away from the wall she had been involuntarily shrinking against, and made a mad, thoughtless dash for the foyer.

"Do you know what it's like to have the promise of your family in the palm of your hand, only to have them snatched away again and again?"

What Bonnie found angered her. Jeremy lay unconscious in front of the unlit fireplace and Caroline struggled at the end of a poker, like a fish caught on the end of a lethal spear.

"Motus!" Bonnie roared, magically whacking the Salvatore woman across the living area and away from Caroline. Her body thumped against the bookcase, taking a few of the hardcover titles with her as she fell to the floor with an aggrieved groan. Bonnie wasn't even going to try talking to her this time. Not by choice.

Caroline gasped, her mouth open, her eyes filled with tears while her bloodied hands tried to pull the poker from her stomach. Bonnie ran toward her, keeping one eye on where the woman had flown to, the other on Jeremy.

"Ah, Miss Bennett," Lily said, appearing in front of her, cutting short the rescue mission, her face ashen from either exhaustion or a day's worth of hunger. Her blue eyes vigil in a way that reminded Bonnie of someone wild and homicidal. "How unfortunate to see you alive. I was guaranteed by that charming boy that when he finished with you – you'd be dead."

"Sorry to disappoint," Bonnie played back, glad her voice hadn't cracked.

Lily sneered. A look that reminded one hundred percent of her formerly murderous eldest son and as if she could hear Bonnie's racing heart.

"You haven't disappointed me, dear. Not at all," she remarked in a misleadingly sweet tone, one Bonnie now knew was meant to lure her into a false sense of security. "I would rather the pleasure of doing so myself."

When she lunged, Bonnie reacted, knocking her back, sending her tumbling over the nearest couch with no more than a sharp jerk of a hand. Lily grunted as she hit the floor, a sound of pain that eerily eased into a manic laugh.

"So brave. So unwise," Lily remarked, her eyes flashing in warning. "Did you overlook our last altercation?" Bonnie stared at her with what she hoped was a straight-faced expression, unhindered by Lily's words. "Where is he?"

"And you best tell her, love," Enzo put in nonchalantly, revealing himself. Where the hell had he been hiding? Bonnie could only assume he'd been checking the rest of the house. "She's been at it all night."

"Damon and Stefan aren't here," Bonnie contested, deliberately playing dumb. Enzo looked unconvinced.

"I'm not speaking of my self-regarding sons." Funny coming from a woman who had gone out of her way to shun her _real_ family for an adopted version of one. She didn't see anyone else's pain.

"I killed him," Bonnie answered. Lily stared at the young witch, stunned, her face awash with a range of different emotions that soon fused into one: shock.

"Then he must be back," she challenged in a tone that bordered begging. "He must have risen and is with them."

"Because you gave him your blood? Because you helped him come up with a distraction to link Elena and I?"

Lily looked unmoved.

"Well, he did rise again as you say. But he was bitten by a werewolf—"

Her face shifted to that of measured realization, her hands balling into fists as though she craved to strangle the Bennett witch. Enzo, too, realized that things were on the verge of spiraling, and took a step forward to provide comfort.

"—a fight ensued and fortunately for me, I was able to stake—"

Lily closed the distance before Bonnie even finished her fabricated story, a hand wrapped around her throat, slamming her back against the wall once or twice as if Lily were trying to knock sense into her.

"Then you shall take his place and mend that which you have broken!"

She gave a yelp, her eyes widened with angry astonishment as she peered down at her side, the poker she'd initially lodged in Caroline's stomach jutting from it, feisty blonde attachment in tow.

"Octox," Bonnie hissed, watching as agony swept over Lily's face, her body crumbling beneath her as magic snapped her knee, followed by another.

Enzo dashed across the room in a protective fury, yanking Jeremy off the floor.

"Motus," Bonnie shoved the vampire woman one last time, pushing her toward the front door, away from Caroline and her. She wasn't sure how long she would last with her powers if Lily kept pushing her like this.

"Stop!" Enzo commanded, drawing Jeremy close, baring his fangs against the unconscious boy's neck. Bonnie regarded him, her heart leaping into her throat with trepidation. The last time Enzo touched Jeremy—that she knew of—he killed him, or at least he would have – if not for Stefan and their would-be Elenatherine.

There was no pleading in Bonnie's manner, no begging to have either see reason. "I suggest you put him down and the two of you leave."

She glared at the both of them, making sure Damon's oldest-newest buddy knew that if he even thought to puncture Jeremy's skin, she would flay him alive.

"Haurire," she murmured, the poker sailing from out of Lily's side, ripping a startled cry from her. Enzo released Jeremy, unmindful of how he fell, and dashed toward Lily. Caroline reacted as quickly, catching the younger Gilbert before he could bang his head on the wood. Carefully bringing him back to Bonnie's side.

"Leave? Leave my home?" Lily countered through gritted teeth, groaning as Enzo helped force her limbs into position, gradually taking his aid as she pushed herself off the polished floor for the third time.

"This place isn't your home. And from what I hear, that was your decision."

Caroline seconded that with no more than an uncharacteristic rumble. Lily stood casting a purposeful glance at Jeremy who had been placed upon the floor at our feet.

"Touch him again and I'll make sure your struggle to find your family is at a permanent end," said Bonnie.

Lily grinned and met the witch's eyes again, dusting at her attire, uselessly nursing her former wounds.

"You're hasty to make threats, Miss Bennett. Is that wise?"

"Probably not. But after what you've done to me, to my friends—"

"What have I done to you?!" Lily countered, cutting short her speech, that wild look reflecting in her eyes once more, like a button Bonnie had flicked. "You took that which I most value and destroyed it!"

Bonnie didn't even feel bad about that. She couldn't. She wouldn't. Not after what had come to pass. She hadn't counted on the heretics, she hadn't envisioned the bigger mess she'd make or be a part of, but what's done is done. If they weren't around, if Lily hadn't found them yet, then maybe Kai hadn't been able to bring them with him and had merely used Lily to gain her blood in order to turn and exact his revenge on his family. Maybe what he said to Bonnie before had been a lie, maybe he had been purposely trying to scare her.

"I had my reasons," Bonnie added, trying to sound detached, trying to present an emotionless front.

"You are a despicable and heartless woman, Miss Bennett."

Bonnie darted a look at Caroline, who was uncharacteristically quiet, and then at Jeremy at her feet.

"As are you, Missis Salvatore. Now I suggest you take the chance to leave while you still can and while I still deem your sons my friends. Or I might temporarily forget."

Lily stared at the Bennett girl long and hard, her eyes speaking volumes of her intention and what was to come. They weren't done. Not by a long shot. And then, they were gone.

Bonnie stood rooted to the spot for a long time, taking a few moments to catch her breath, feeling her legs wanting to give beneath her weight now that the immediate threat had been removed and she knew they were safe-ish.

"Shit!" she heard Caroline curse and snap her from her trance. "Thank God for whatever mystical force came up with hunter healing." Bonnie darted a look to where she was crouched over Jeremy, checking his bruised temple. "He'll be fine."

Bonne breathed a sigh of relief and dropped the poker, walking over toward the two of them, wordlessly easing to the floor on her knees beside them. They sat in silence side by side for a while, waiting for Jeremy to wake up, processing.

"What happened?" Bonnie asked, taking in the trivial carnage that struck the living room.

"I was upstairs and then there she was. I guess Lily was looking for Kai, and when she couldn't find him, she started in on the inquiries."

"Right. Are you okay?"

"Lily didn't do much damage. Not to me. She was going on and on about her family and—well, you know." Caroline glanced down at the unconscious figure. Jeremy must have set her off. He wasn't very good at controlling his impulses, especially when drunk or provoked. "I should call Stefan."

"You'd better." Bonnie eased onto her butt, leaning back against the couch for support.

"Are you okay?" Caroline asked, peering at her guiltily. "That must have taken a bit out of you."

"I'm fine." Bonnie smiled softly to put her at ease.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course."

She looked down at her witch friend a moment as if doubtful. "Then why would you lie?"

Bonnie could tell immediately to what she was referring and that the blonde thought it was because Bonnie was protecting Kai.

And was she? Maybe.

"Because she'd want to kill us," Bonnie answered after a second's thought. To her mind, it seemed the most logical and even the most honest answer. "And Enzo would have let her."

"Right," Caroline exhaled deeply, flashing her a smile as she jumped to her feet. "I'll find my phone and be right back."

"No hurry," Bonnie said, knowing the blonde hadn't heard her as she disappeared upstairs, leaving Bonnie to safeguard and patiently wait for Jeremy to wake up.

Which happened ten minutes later. Groaning, he pressed a hand to his aching and slightly bruised temple. "Bonnie?" he murmured when he saw her, blinking up at her in considerable shock. "Where am I?"

"The parlor," she replied softly.

He eased himself onto his elbows, appearing confused for a second and then in pain as he sat up.

"You okay?" she asked with concern, moving forward and onto her knees to help him sit up.

"Yeah, I— What happened?"

"You picked a battle with the wrong woman."

"Mama Salvatore," he grumbled as it came back to him, sounding like he needed aspirin.

"What were you thinking?" she asked, unable to keep the accusation from her tone.

"I wasn't," he admitted. "She said something and I reacted." Bonnie could see from the look of concentration on his brow he couldn't remember what.

"You can't keep doing that, Jer," she continued, feeling as though she needed to make herself clear, and saw a look of irritation mar his features. "You're going to get yourself, or possibly someone else killed."

"I don't need the lecture," he grumbled, pressing a hand to the side of his temple, wincing as it grazed the enflamed bump.

"I'm not trying to—"

"I already have a sister," he snapped, pushing off the floor, making her cringe as he made to hobble over to the home bar. She watched him take off his shirt and place some ice cubes into the bottom half, twisting the material to make himself an improvised icepack.

Bonnie stood, fraught with hurt as she made her way back to the basement. She charged down the stairs before she even knew why, appearing in the entranceway to his makeshift cell again. He didn't look at all shaken by what he might have heard upstairs or all that surprised to see her again.

"Where are they?" she demanded before even beginning to contemplate the idea of him denying her or the fact that he may not have heard what happened upstairs. He hadn't confirmed it before. "Where's her family?"

Lily's boisterous visit to the Boardinghouse had entertained Kai quite a bit, but he never showed how much. Wearing the habitual lazy smile, he opened his eyes to peer at the young witch, lacing his hands under his head. "Not where she's looking, I dare assume."

Bonnie hardly thought to stay beyond the border anymore, unable to contain her fury as both Lily and Jeremy had gotten under her skin respectively. "And where _should_ she be looking?" she queried, rather irked that he appeared so unsurprised and at ease. He must have been able to hear what was going on, he must have known that she was here. "Where are they?" she repeated, suddenly in need of an answer. How close? How far? How much more trouble was she in?

Her heart was picking up speed with every passing second, indicating the growth of her frustration and ire, and Kai wondered when she would start screaming and throwing spells at him to gain intel.

He propped himself on an elbow, regarding her with a condescending amusement. "You're having memory trouble again, Bonsy. Haven't I told you I wasn't here to make it easier for you? To help you ward off the danger and save your friends while they keep pouring shit upon your head and bitch at you when you slip in the pools of it?"

This wasn't about her friends anymore. This was about her. About protecting herself. Bonnie was over the idea of martyring herself and done taking chances with her life. She wanted to tackle the problems before they came to collect her head, like they just did. Hadn't he realized that even he was a raging example of that?

"If you wanna know something you don't and think I do – I'm not just handing it over. Now you will have to fight for it, work for it, win it. And don't wait for me to tell you how. You were smart enough to come up with a perfect vengeance plan when you left me in nineteen-o-three. This one should be a child's game to you."

"And here I thought we were making some headway," she replied, magically hauling him off the thin mattress, shoving the cot aside with the other hand, immobilizing him against the wall for better inspection as she neared. Bonnie hated his smug attitude. She hated how much pleasure he was getting out of tormenting her.

She stayed this way for another minute, making no move to choke or hurt him, purely securing him in place. She was angry and doing her best to contain the desire she had to _make_ him give her the answers.

And boy, was she angry. Kai sensed it coming off her in waves, like faint electricity in the air before a summer thunderstorm. She was eyeing him acutely, and he regarded her with the same lighthearted demeanor he had greeted her with. If there was anything Kai could read in her stare, it was struggling to refrain from torture. She wanted to do what he expected she would consider sooner or later: she itched to beat the answers out of him.

"I'm already giving you my blood," she reasoned. "What more do you want? Your freedom? I'm sure if you wanted that, you'd have taken it."

"You're so quick to belittle yourself, Banzai. What if it's your significant power and spells that keep me here?"

Bonnie liked to think she was finally being realistic. She had taken every precaution when she stationed him here and he had broken each one. The only reason Kai was here—and she believed that now wholeheartedly—was because he chose to be. Bonnie might be naïve to some extent, blinded by certain things and people, but she liked to think that she was steadily taking the blinkers off and allowing herself to see the truth.

"But it's beside the point. I have to remind you yet again of a thing I've already told you earlier – honestly, I really believe you gotta take notes or something. Here goes: there's nothing I want. I'm beyond wanting anything. Aside from blood, obviously, which I guess I hardly can function well without. Or who knows…" Kai looked at her pensively, then with an amusement of genuine wonder. "I actually have no idea if I can or not."

"I guess I should make things a fraction more uncomfortable then," Bonnie announced, summoning him to her as if he were a motionless puppet on a string. She centered him in the middle of the room so she could walk around him, careful not to give him leeway, knowing he'd retaliate. She wasn't prepared to duke it out just yet – not the second time.

The soles of his boots scrapped against the floor as she pulled him in place. She circled him like a hungry wild cat would a trapped antelope. Her fingers tucked into the collar of his denim jacket, sending goosebumps down his back, and pulled it off. She tossed it aside like a useless rag and stood before him, scrutinizing.

"I've been rather hospitable and accommodating to your requests," she said. "And frankly – as bad as I feel about what happened to your family and what I did to you – there is only so much I can do to make it up to you." Her eyes scanned his tee-shirt, and she touched her hand to his chest, fingers skimming the material where the hole from Caroline's fist should have been. Was he that vain that he had used magic to repair it? Or was she missing something?

She chose to brush aside the mystery and put on a deceptively friendly smile. "Not that I'll quit trying. Customarily, when I put my mind to something, I'm all in. And I am all in. But for right now and for this to work, I'm going to need you to loosen up, stop being so indifferent and throw me a bone. Because, like you, I, too, want to find some semblance of a normal life, and I can't do that with Mama Salvatore hovering in the background trying to conjure up new ways to kill me."

Her tone was calm and calculated, and Kai smelled an ultimatum looming just over the hill in her speech. He welcomed it with elated curiosity.

"So if that means I have to take a small break from my attempt to make amends in order to drain you of my blood, then that's what I'm going to have to do, right?"

Her fingers were toying with the rim of his shirt, and that calculated frivolity of her tone told Kai loud and clear she begged him not to make her do it. There was also her body language, letting him in on how unstable and possibly scared she was. And she had all reasons to be.

Bonnie wasn't sure she would go through with it, that she was capable of torturing someone – not like Damon, and yet, there was a part of her that was so scared of death and what she had experienced, that she would do anything to keep from repeating it. _Anything_. And that frightened her more.

Kai felt like a fisherman who's been sitting at a pond for hours staring at his float on the undisturbed surface and now has noticed the tiniest jerk. He was straining his eyes for any faint rings on the water to confirm it had been real and not his wishful thinking.

He clicked his tongue and canted his head, peering at her humorously. "You miss again, Bons."

It made her stomach drop, promptly turning her blood to ice. Bonnie missed the days of his cooperation, of that helpful smile she believed to be fake. This was like pulling teeth.

"For me, there's no semblance of a normal life I could want. I mean," he chuckled, "I don't even know what's normal, anymore, if anything is, at all. Let alone, if I want it. Probably not. Norm is something from science fiction to me."

She felt for Kai. She truly did. She was suffering the same problem. Bonnie convinced herself that once this was over, once Kai, Lily and the Heretics were all respectively dealt with, things would find some semblance of amity. Life and picking up the pieces thereafter would be easy and she would have the answers needed to slow her down. And yet—with Elena's life tied to her own so indefinitely—Bonnie now felt as if her existence had dribbled down into nothing and that taking things day by day wasn't allowed anymore. Bonnie needed to prove she deserved to be here.

She hated feeling like that and she hated questioning her worth for even a second.

He donated a mock deploring expression to her. "From the notes you should've been taking, I quote: I'm not throwing any bones unless you win them. End quote."

"Then we'll have to take a look at desiccation."

Bonnie ignored the end of his shirt, having intended to slice at his stomach a little in reminder of the stunt he pulled with Damon, hoping he'd be disinclined to push her any further. But somehow, she knew that wouldn't be the case, that with the mindset he was in he would push and push and push until his guts, too, were hanging on the floor. Bonnie didn't want to go that far.

She took a hold of his right wrist, feeling the light strains of magic start to take their toll. She wasn't accustomed to doing lengthy bouts of spells like this anymore and knew from experience that she wasn't built to go the extra mile, like some. There were limitations on her, on what she could do, and how much power she could use – there always had been, no matter the source.

Kai sensed magic seep in through the skin and crawl around like disturbed electrons, and looked at her with genuine curios anticipation that shot a bout of shivers up his spine. The float jerked again, and this time it sent ripples across the pond's surface. It was real. Her heart was starting to race nervously, but there was resolution in her eyes.

Bonnie drew her thumb along the length of his wrist, murmuring: "Manere aperta."

The flesh parted like a layered curtain but did not heal – and it wouldn't. Blood trickled down; Kai heard each drop hit the floor at his feet, _plop-plop-plop_. She repeated it with the other wrist, and neither wound healed. They were deep enough to have severed the veins and provided a steady flow of blood. It was going to take time, but not too long. He stood in two pools of his blood that were gradually expanding and soon would link into one.

"I know you're new to the ways of being a vampire so you're probably unaware of the next step," she said, taking a step back, mindful of the blood starting to pool at their feet and his gasp of pain. She didn't like what she was doing, she didn't take pleasure in it, and she sure as hell hadn't wanted to do it, but what other choice was there? What other means did she have that she could trust would get her quick answers? "But it's called desiccation. Your veins dry up, things become harsher and louder and you'll be desperate to sate your hunger, but unable… unable to move, to feed, and at the end of the day you'll be a dried up old husk of who you used to be. Not a man, not a vampire, merely a piece of decorative and deadly furniture."

Her eyes scrutinized him almost hungrily, eyeing her own float and hoping for a ripple. Wondering if his vanity or his imprisonment would allow him to succumb to something like that. She _hoped_ not.

"And I won't be able to help you as I wouldn't be able to give you my undivided attention. It's not fair to either of us."

Kai glanced down at the widening lake of red under his boots, wiggling his fingers lightly; they were starting to go cold at the tips. "Ugh, so bloodthirsty, Banzai. I'm shivering to the core."

 _Bloodthirsty?_ Was that what she had become in wake of loneliness? Wasn't that what changed him? Bonnie, too, shivered, but for another reason, one that made her feel sickened by their more noticeable similarities.

He met her eyes and smiled a little. "Since you're up for some education, tell me, what's next? You bleed me dry, I lose my strength… and you still get no answers, and your town still meets its gruesome fate. So, what's the point?"

"There isn't one," she said, eyeing the blood flowing from his wrists in grisly rivulets. "I'm desperate." Giving no emphasis to the statement, feeling she could admit that without feeling any kind of shame. "I don't want to die for the sake of Damon's poor judgement. So if that means I have no choice but to make a run for it as far from here as possible, then I'm more willing to do that." She had already fought one battle and lost this night. She wasn't sure she was prepared for an entire war. "But there are no more in-betweens for me, no more taking unnecessary risks, no more leaving the hard hits to come to me or underestimating anyone. I'm done screwing around. I'm done negotiating." She had offered him leniency, given Kai the room needed to make up for what she did, but that was as far as Bonnie was willing to go, as far as she was looking to extent her arm—or neck. "Deal's off."

She released Kai, noticing him become a bit paler. He wasn't too weak but he was getting to a point.

Kai wavered where he stood, starting to feel weary from the blood loss. She walked away into the corridor and he lowered on the cot, closing his eyes for a moment to concentrate. A feeble warmth of power caressed the cuts. When he looked down at them, they skinned over sluggishly.

Bonnie walked over to the salt barrier, stretching to swat aside a few bloody grains when Caroline abruptly appeared in front of her.

"What the hell are you doing?" the blonde asked, staring at her friend and the blood all around. She reached down, hauling Bonnie away from the salt barrier and back out. "What's with the blood?"

"We're talking."

"Talking?" Incredulous, she peered inside again. "Are you kidding me?"

"What's going on, Caroline?"

She said nothing, raising a black shirt on her crooked index finger.

"And?"

"It's his," she said, confirming Bonnie's earlier suspicions. They both turned to look at him attentively.

"I liked your resolution, Bonnie," Kai said, ignoring the shirt matter altogether. "Time for negotiations or screwing around is running out quicker than any of you think. Sure, you can run, try to hide, but there's nothing to ever stand between the heretics and your family." He looked at her with a small shrewd smile. "You do have some left, don't you."

Bonnie swallowed hard at the thought of her mother getting caught in the crossfire the second time. Or even Lucy, for that matter – not that she was around or in Bonnie's life, but Bonnie knew Damon managed to contact her and that he'd even taken her blood for the spell they used to get to Bonnie in nineteen-ninety-four. Bonnie hadn't even been aware he knew Lucy or how to contact her. She herself didn't know how to reach her cousin—still didn't.

"Your line of witches helped put them in a prison world for a century – and since I've taken care of my coven, they'll never stop until all of YOU meet your horrid ends."

For an instant Bonnie saw her grandmother die, saw her mother's neck get snapped and her father's throat cut. All the people she loved had been expendable in some way or another, and not for a second had she thought it to be different now. She needed to warn her, to let Lucy know she was alive again and somehow get a message sent.

"There will be no negotiation or screwing around, you got that right. They're like terminators, the newest models that can't be destroyed by any means you know of. Your running won't even slow them down much. But you're free to try – I'll even wish you good luck. So, if you don't need me anymore, either kill me or let me go so I could resume my sacred vow to kill in your honor and share that pleasure with you for the rest of your mortal days." A falsely tender smile stretched his lips.

Bonnie thought with bitter irony how she had been moments from releasing Kai, seconds from opening that door and setting him free, stupidly thinking that his earlier threat to kill in her honor had blown over and that he'd had time to work through things.

"What is he talking about?" Caroline asked, intruding on her thoughts, tossing aside the bloodstained shirt.

"Does it matter?"

"Yes," she answered. "It matters. You're not alone in this anymore, remember?"

Bonnie nodded faintly, wishing they weren't having this conversation where Kai could prop, insert and stir. But there was no safe space upstairs. Not from Damon or Jeremy or anyone else that all of a sudden cared.

"Then tell me and don't try to cushion it," Caroline persuaded. "On a scale from one to ten… how screwed are we?"

"Terminators," Bonnie added. The blonde's nose wrinkled as she tried to wade through the reference. Bonnie arched a brow.

"What?" Caroline said with absolute innocence, reading her momentary exasperation. "I never watched the movies. I mean I did… but I slept mostly. You know they're not my scene."

"Twelve on the scale from one to ten," Bonnie mused in response, seeing her lips part in a light oh of displeasure.

"And there is nothing you can do?"

Bonnie shook her head faintly, ignoring the pang of irritation. Caroline meant well.

"But what about your research?"

"I have one pair of eyes, two hands, a lack of sleep issue, and a limited amount of time."

"I know… I just—I'm not sure if I can give up on this place just yet—"

"And how long is it going to take you to make that decision?" Bonnie interjected far more snippily than she intended. "Who is going to have to die next for you to see how fucked we are? Or are we going to stick with tradition and say: me?"

Caroline's eyes widening, her cheeks warming with obvious embarrassment. "Of course not—"

"Kai's right. They are going to come for me or… Abby. They always do!" Bonnie cast a look over her shoulder to see if any recognition dawned on him in light of her mother's name. How much did he know? How much had he told them?

"Then what can we do?"

"I don't know," Bonnie answered, glancing back at her wearily.

"And what about him?"

"I don't know," she repeated, feeling even more despondent.

Caroline fell silent, unsure of what to say, uncertain of what she could do to make this better or worse.

"Have you talked to Damon?" she asked, making Bonnie exhale wearily. "Maybe Stefan would be better. He could talk to his mother and try to tone down her crazy."

"You mean because that worked so well the first time?"

"Alright then," she said after a few minutes' consideration. "I guess we pack our bags and try to get as far from here as possible. Where should we go? Miami? Texas? Oh, maybe… Rome?"

Bonnie smiled, by no means possessing the heart to tell her that if she, Bonnie, were to leave, to make a run for it, she wouldn't be doing it with them. She would be alone and for safety sake wouldn't tell any of them where.

"You decide," was what she voiced.

Caroline smiled wider, putting on her best go-with-the-flow face. "I'll talk to Stefan. I mean… he should know of a half-decent place to set up shop. When should we look at—"

"As soon as possible," Bonnie interjected.

"I guess I'll go speak to him, then."

"Good plan." Bonnie made no move to follow as she started for the stairs again. "Oh, and Care… make sure Enzo doesn't catch wind of our intentions, okay?"

"Right. Got it. No Damon." A final nod and she was gone, forgetting why she'd come down here and why Bonnie stayed.

Kai had listened to their exchange with lazy interest, without interjecting. Their idea of just packing things and running amused him, and also let him in on the simple fact he had been almost certain of: none of them knew the true extent of the danger they were in, except for Bonnie who still doubted and fluctuated a lot in her assessments. She nodded and agreed when Caroline bubbled about places they could go and what had to be done before they did, but her heart was not in it, Kai could see.

Bonnie crouched down to pick up the shirt, inspecting it to take her mind off things. "So… tell me, were you being acerbic about spending the next however long at my side trying to make me miserable or have you really reached a stage in your life where you have nothing else to live for?"

Kai laughed. "Do you really deem my goals in life the most appropriate topic right now when you're that screwed? It's interesting, actually, how Caroline, for instance, acts like she has no fucking clue of what's coming, and she's been at the wedding. Amazing how your friends disregard any logic or facts when you're around. Know why? Because they know they don't have to overwork their asses or brains when you can pull your witchy juju and fix everything. Whatever the cost, they know _they'll_ be fine anyhow, because you go out of your way every time to make sure of that." He chuckled. "Wasn't it cute how much disbelief there was in her tone when she kept asking you if there's REALLY nothing YOU could do? Like she thought you were having her on saying there was no chance. Hilarious. It's like they're all blind in their arrogance, no matter how obvious the threat is."

Considering how much they had faced over the last few years and what they had defeated, Bonnie could understand Caroline's unwavering faith in her. But had she—they—forgotten the length Bonnie had gone to and suffered to achieve most those goals? None of them were easy and none came with a reliable price.

Kai squinted pensively, regarding her. "You remind me of Cassandra. Know that story? She was a clairvoyant woman in Troy who everybody deemed crazy, especially when she started running the streets and crying that Troy would burn and fall. Not one soul believed her! Because every citizen was arrogant enough to believe they were safe behind their walls. I think she died with the city. What a shame! Isn't it? She knew! Of all people, she did. Everyone mocked her, some threw stones telling her to shut up, but she kept warning them, and they kept laughing. I mean, if that were you – wouldn't you just leave them all to their fates and go? Save yourself to watch from the distance and gloat? Nah, she stayed and died with Troy she loved too much to abandon, even if there was fuck-all she could do about any of it. Died for nothing."

In the past – no, Bonnie would have stayed and fought, the same way she refused to run yesterday in spite of Matt's concern. She needed to finish this, she needed to put an end to what she had started, albeit unsuccessfully. Things were different now, far more out of control and deadlier than she cared to partake in and she didn't want to sacrifice herself – not anymore. Not for anyone. Not again. The days of her dying and watching her friends move on with their lives—forgetting about her—were over.

"And here's you, Bonnie of the ancient, powerful Bennett line," Kai concluded. "What are _you_ gonna do about your Troy?"


	16. Chapter 16

**_A/N a.k.a Bonnie's foreword:_ **_**Jordanjanellejoy ** (We're so very glad we can keep surprising you. As for the gang, yeah, they're falling in numbers and quickly! It feels liberating not letting Bonnie even out the odds with another sacrifice.), **pennytree** (Kai is a p*ssytease. He works poor Bonnie into a frenzy and she has no idea how to deal with him. She's trying her best to keep those 'moral girl shoes' firmly on her feet. She has a plan. As for Caroline, yeah, that's a thing that has upset me as a Bonnie fan too. The writers have made everyone oblivious to Bonnie's weaknesses, so much so that six seasons down the line characters are only just starting to take notice of other witches nose bleeds. As for desiccating Lily, who knows what'll happen and what she'll do if pushed? Proper desiccation takes sacrifice. Jeremy had to die for Klaus.), **itscalledkarma** (Family means everything to Stefan. Loyalty, too. That's why I believe he struggles to give up on those undeserving of his devotion. I, too, wish he would, though. He can be such a masochist sometimes. But it's one of the traits I most love about him, too, I guess.) **Melika** (Are you speaking nasty in the sense that she bled him out or in the way of them bumping uglies? One I'm not sure of at this point and the other, well, Bonnie is a little volatile, hurt and determined. She's like a wriggling worm on a hook), **falconrukichi** (Damon hurting Bonnie is particularly hard for me to write, too, I assure you. But I think their bust up and loggerheads is something of a must have. I hate when the show brushes things under the rug; and what he did, how he did it and went about it is important. Who knows, maybe Damon will eventually get his head out of his ass and give up this one man war of his?) and **goldngrl98** (You say the sweetest things! *bats my lashes* we can only hope that these next few updates live up to your expectations)._

 _Once again, thank you all so much for taking the time to leave us a review. You've no idea how much it means to us. We hope you enjoy the next update!_

* * *

 **CHAPTER 16**

"And here's you, Bonnie of the ancient, powerful Bennett line," Kai concluded. "What are _you_ gonna do about your Troy?"

"I'm going to put as much distance between myself and this place as possible," Bonnie answered scrupulously, unwavering, uncaring that he now deemed her a coward. Whether or not everyone else heeded the warning she'd given Caroline and left as she had suggested – that was up to them.

For now—and from this moment in time—Bonnie's only true concern was Kai and her own safety.

"Don't get too comfortable," she said, gesturing around the makeshift cell, somewhat irked to see he was still in high spirits and that the blood loss hadn't gotten to him too much.

She needed a new spell, a new link, something that would prevent Kai from snacking on someone else and make sure he wouldn't be able to stray too far. If Bonnie was going to move, if she was going to force him to run with her, she was going to make sure he wouldn't be able to negate it, change up the plan and turn the whole thing over on its head.

"I'll be back." And with that, she started upstairs to face the music, convinced that Damon and Stefan were back by now and that they'd have a lot to say—or nothing—about Lily's appearance.

* * *

"We aren't going anywhere," she heard Damon announce, agitated and obstinate. "I don't care what Bonnie says right now, she's isn't thinking clearly."

"Keep your voice down!" Caroline ordered in a slight hush. "She's right behind me. Or she will be. And what does it matter if Bonnie's judgment is a bit askew. Have you forgotten she's been through a trauma?"

"Not to mention that she's been back less than two weeks," Stefan added.

"Trauma or no trauma, Bonnie needs to hear this," Damon iterated, still bitter—Bonnie guessed—about her inability to do anything for Elena. "We don't have time for a pity party fest or her unstable conscience."

Bonnie bit down the hurt at his words and walked into the parlor. All eyes swivelled toward her.

"Bonnie," Caroline greeted as if she hadn't been with her friend a couple of minutes ago, checking to see how much of their conversation Bonnie had overheard. "Everything okay? I mean with—"

"Peachy," Bonnie answered, cutting short the mention of the elephant in the room's name. She walked across the parlor, oblivious to Damon's glare. "Where's Jeremy?"

"Sleeping it off," he responded before Caroline could. "If you weren't so busy doing God only knows what with that lunatic downstairs – you'd know that."

"Is he okay?" she pressed on, staring Damon down, enticing him to further make a scene. He opened his mouth, preparing to spit something out, only to have Caroline cut him off this time.

"Little bruised, head and ego—but he'll live. I took him upstairs earlier—"

"And Alaric?" Bonnie asked.

"Oh, he—" Stefan began, taking the cue to ease into the conversation.

"Thinks that you're off your rocker," Damon finished, the glass he was drinking from poised against his lower lip.

"Quit it," Stefan reprimanded, his face shifting from stunned to that of contained fury.

"And that someone or something else returned from nineteen-ninety-four in your place. At least that's what we listened to him rant about for well over two-and-a-half hours."

"And is that what you believe?" Bonnie asked before she could think that she was playing into his set-up, powerless to keep the hint of hurt and fury from her voice.

"I didn't. Not until last night, not until you started sheltering a sociopath in my basement, and not until Caroline came up here with budding ideas of leaving Mystic Falls. My mother is NOT the problem—"

"Maybe not for you," Bonnie sneered. "Lily has yet to attempt to kill _you_."

"And who _hasn't_ attempted to kill you?" Damon retorted with a childish roll of his eyes.

"Stefan, Caroline," Bonnie supplied, feeling good about having a go-to reference.

"Whoop Dee Doo! That's only because you were too consumed by your paranoia—"

Damon gasped harshly and then grunted in agony when a sharp pain started behind his eyes and drove him to his knees.

Bonnie couldn't remember being this volatile. When they had been in the prison world things had never gotten physical, never reached that point—however aggravating he could be—and yet, now that they were back, now that Bonnie was struggling with life, trying to fit in the society and put herself first – it all felt wrong somehow.

"Bonnie," Stefan refuted in that gentle I-can't-bear-to-see-my-brother-in-pain tone of his. She glanced at him.

"Bonnie," Caroline replicated, flanking Stefan's side and reaching out to take a hold of the witch's shoulder.

"No," Bonnie said, shaking her off, ignoring her friend's pain, ignoring the blood running from his nose as it had from hers so many times over the years. "Your mother would have killed me tonight or she will when she's done with me."

She ignored the way Stefan's mouth opened and closed in uncertainty. She knew he wanted to tell her he'd protect her, that he'd make sure that wouldn't happen. But there was only so much he could do—like in the very beginning, when he first came into town—Bonnie knew he only had a limited hold over his family. And unfortunately, Lily was too much like Damon to put Bonnie at ease.

"I'm taking Kai and I'm getting out of here. I'm leaving."

"Bonnie," Caroline gasped, her voice peppered with apprehension. "You can't mean that—I—"

"I do," Bonnie said, hating to see tears in her friend's eyes. "I can't stay, Care. I can't wait for Damon to see past his angst or denial or whatever stage he is in right now and realize that his mother is about to bring hell on earth."

"I know you're scared, I know you think that we anticipate something from you and that you should have all the answers. But it isn't true."

Wasn't it? What of her earlier shock when Bonnie announced she had none?

"You're damn right I'm scared. And you should be, too. You saw what he is capable of."

Damon's grunts grew louder, his breathing shallower, harsher, until Bonnie was forced to look at him and concede. His blue eyes were narrowed and irate, a look of exhaustion marring his handsome face. Stefan made no move to go check on him. Caroline fell silent, unsure of how else to make Bonnie stay.

Bonnie finished her drink, set the glass down, and walked toward the entranceway. She wouldn't stay here tonight, she would grab her things and go. She didn't want to risk Lily making a round trip and returning in the middle of the night. And after Jo, after all the pain the doctor underwent, and the warning she'd received the day before, it seemed natural.

"I'm not letting you leave," Damon said, appearing in front of her, cutting off her retreat, making no move to wipe the blood from his nose and lips. He looked feral. "Not with him."

"I wasn't asking your permission," Bonnie said, staring him down unflinchingly, challenging him in the same way she had done for four months. There was a lot he let her get away with, a lot he let her do, but she could tell this wasn't one of those times.

"I know," he said and lunged, closing his hands around her forearms, hauling her against his chest to tuck into her neck. Bonnie gasped as his teeth broke through flesh and tore into her throat. There was a ruckus around her, and before she knew it, he was being ripped away from her and she was being cradled in someone's arms.

"Get me off me!" Bonnie heard Damon yell, and a fleshy thump as someone's fist connected with his face.

 _"What the hell is wrong with you?!"_

There was another resound slap and something breaking.

Damon hadn't managed to take a lot of blood, but he stunned her. Bonnie peered into two concerned emerald eyes, wincing as Stefan pressed a hand to her neck. He gave her a baffled look.

"Caroline's blood," Bonnie responded half-heartedly in answer to his unspoken question, uncertain if she lied. She brushed aside his hand and slowly sat up. Stefan said nothing in response and extended a hand to help her off the floor. She ignored it.

"Back off, Blondie banks!"

"Are you trying to kill her?" Caroline accused, looking as ferocious as she had when she thought Kai was trying to maim her friend. "Is this about Elena? Are you that fucking selfish?!"

"Of course not!" Damon sounded affronted as he coughed, fraught with the little vervain that had been in Bonnie's system. "I'm trying to weaken her! Can't you see she's in need of an intervention and downtime?"

"An intervention with your teeth? How backwards ARE you?!" Bonnie could hear that Caroline didn't believe him, that her fear of losing Bonnie had taken her too far. As had Stefan. He rushed toward her, circling an arm around her waist before she could think to throw herself at Damon again, and pulled her back against his chest. "Don't you fucking touch her again, you understand me?"

"I'm trying to do what's best for her," Damon argued, refusing to back down. "She needs help before he—" He hadn't gotten to finish voicing his plan of action when suddenly his head snapped to the left as though struck hard. He crumbled to the floor, both Caroline and Stefan abruptly stopping to stare at Bonnie.

"When he wakes up. Tell him I'm sorry," Bonnie said, knowing that she was. She hadn't wanted their relationship to go this route. She pushed off the floor and stood. "For everything. For Elena, for the neck, for global warming."

"You know he cares about you," Stefan said as though he unexpectedly felt it necessary to make that clear, as if that had gotten lost in translation after everything that happened.

"I know," she said, glancing down at his unconscious figure, feeling that hollow pang once again take a hold of her heart and squeeze.

"Are you sure?" Stefan asked as she approached the archway.

"About leaving?"

He nodded.

"It's my best bet." And with that Bonnie started out, dashing across the foyer and upstairs to fetch her grimoire, her clothes bag, and to recast the linking spell. She would work out the finer details once she room to breathe.

* * *

The whole exchange upstairs had provided a great amount of entertainment as Kai took in the words and noises reaching his ears from the drama in the parlor as if he were on the first row watching the show on stage. Damon performed brilliantly, he had to give him that. Kai didn't expect it would click so well, every detail of the puzzle seemed to fit in ways even he couldn't have predicted. It was ironic how Damon helped most with something he fought so hard. Mother once told Kai, Whatever you resist the most is most likely to happen to you. Perhaps she was right, and Damon could relate to that little piece of wisdom had he known.

For a moment, Kai felt a subtle touch of uncertainty, like a whiff of icy air in the middle of a hot summer day. It seemed too easy. What if some higher power guiding their big game here in this world was coaxing him to relax to later yank the rug from under his feet? That shit happened too often. It was like a stamp. But if he thought about it, he couldn't quite state it went too easy for him. Not by a long shot, if Kai counted all of his misfortunes. So, maybe this time it was a legit luck turning on its brilliance to rain it upon him. He wouldn't mind. Nor would Bonnie, he suspected. Not for some time, at least.

* * *

"I should go with you," Caroline said after they threw Bonnie's bags into the back of Zach's Ford. Bonnie couldn't take Damon's car—that would be cruel—Caroline's was with Matt, and Stefan's was, well, adorable but unconventional for prison-convoy duty.

"No," Bonnie said, having been on this topic of conversation for fifteen minutes already.

"But what if he tries to kill you? What if this is all part of his masterful plan?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't know." Caroline looked sheepish as they approached the basement to collect Kai. She had a vervain gun in her hand, one fully equipped and ready to stun his ass for transport. "I just… maybe Damon's right—or at least… he would have been, if you'd let him finish."

She was starting to sound like brainwashed Jeremy.

"He's not. Trust me."

"I'm trying, Bonnie. But…"

"But what?"

"Do you even know what you're doing with this guy? Don't you think that maybe you're in a little too deep?" She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, weighing up what next to say without obviously trying to hurt Bonnie. "Redemption and reforming the bad guy was Elena's thing."

"Are you saying I'm trying to compensate?"

"Are you?"

"No," Bonnie shook her head, clearing it of the sudden confusion, and reaching to take the gun from her.

"I know losing Elena was hard on you—"

"I'm okay."

"I don't believe you," Caroline said, reaching to take a hold of her friend's arm, turning Bonnie to face her.

"I haven't lost her. She's there. And when I can, I'll do everything I can to find a way around this."

"And what if there is no way?"

Bonnie shrugged. "I keep trying."

"Bonnie, don't do this," she pleaded, worried about Bonnie's mental space and where things were headed. And more importantly: what if Damon was right? "Let me go with you."

"I'll be fine," Bonnie said, reassuring her for the umpteenth time. "I'll call you, on the hour, every hour." At least for the first little bit and until Bonnie knew where she was going. Caroline, unmindful of the gun, reached forward, pulling her into a hug, holding onto her as if she were afraid she would never see her again. Bonnie hugged her back. When they loosened their grip on one another, Caroline looked hesitant to let go, afraid of what might happen if she did.

"I don't have much time," Bonnie said, whirling away from her, stepping up to the doorway once more and peering inside to see where Kai was. She was going to have to make this quick. Damon would wake soon.

Their emotional talk with Caroline didn't bother Kai much, aside from the points where it confirmed that Bonnie was heading in the right direction.

He observed her with an attentive mien of an eager student when she stopped on the threshold of his cell, holding a gun. He raised his hands in mock display of surrender. "You better have some spare shirts and a shower to promise me if you're gonna shoot this thing."

"If you're lucky," Bonnie said, and squeezed the trigger. She couldn't risk Kai trying to screw around on their way out, by no means ready for a physical altercation between the two most important men in her life. Caroline caught Kai before he tumbled to the floor, not wanting to get herself bloodied up more than necessary.

"Not to be morbid and off-topic but um… what about Jo?"

"She's there when Alaric is ready to bury her. Just make sure he doesn't take weeks, months, or even years."

Bonnie lowered the gun and overlooked the echo of sadness in Caroline's eyes, checking to see if there were any rounds left in the cartridge as she went to examine the motionless figure in the second cell. Bonnie stepped inside, crouched, and pulled the blue mesh back away from the woman's once expressive and friendly face. Jo hadn't decayed, nothing that Bonnie could markedly see, no discoloration, and no smell, nothing you'd expect from a corpse. But she knew that wouldn't last forever – not all magic did, and this one had been more than a temporary fix.

"Bonnie?" Caroline called softly. "Are you coming?" Bonnie could tell she seemed hopeful her friend had changed her mind in the last few seconds. As if somehow Bonnie'd had an epiphany. "Should I go ahead and load him in so long?"

"He isn't luggage, Caroline," Bonnie chided with a hint of vexation, incapable of containing a small smile of implicit amusement when she walked back out into the corridor and saw how the blonde was carrying him.

"You could have fooled me," she replied. Kai was thrown over her right shoulder, her arm enfolded around his legs to keep him from falling off. Bonnie had doubled the dosage of the vervain, making sure he'd be out cold for a bit.

"How are you going to contain him, anyway?"

"Same way I did here. Plus, as he referred to it, a magical leash."

"You should keep that with you," she said, gesturing to the gun Bonnie was still holding. "It might come in handy if things go belly up. I mean…I won't be around to save you if um… things get out of control."

"They won't," Bonnie replied, sounding confident while being by no means sure of how anything would go from here on out or if this was even a good idea. "Now let's go, vampires have an amazing rebound rate, as you well know, and chatty Kathy up there is going to be wanting to rage war when he wakes up. I don't want to be around for that."

Caroline walked ahead, bypassing the parlor where she knew Stefan was waiting for Damon to wake up in hopes of calming him down or serving him a drink to help with the pain in his neck. She loaded Kai into the backseat of the old Ford with Bonnie's help, mindful of his legs—at Bonnie's request—and her own care, making sure he appeared comfortable. Bonnie tossed the tranquilizer gun into the passenger's seat.

"What are you going to do about the sun?"

"Excuse me?"

"For him?" Caroline gestured down at Kai. That had completely escaped Bonnie's mind. "For Kai."

"I—" Bonnie began, peering around the garage for something she could strew across him.

"Give me a second. I'll be right back," Caroline said, disappearing from Bonnie's line of vision, headed back inside the house to collect a large blanket, which she threw over him upon her return and tucked in as to make sure none of the afternoon's deadly rays would singe him and cause a distraction. As much as Caroline loathed the guy, she loved Bonnie more.

"What are you going to do for money?"

"I have a stash at home, about two hundred bucks that should get me around. I mean… it's not like I have to worry about feeding him." Bonnie looked down at the hybrid. "No real food anyway. All I have to concern myself with is a bed."

Caroline signed and peered at the floor, resisting the urge to ask her to stay, and then reached out to pull her into another hug. Bonnie embraced her one last time, dismayed that they hadn't gotten to reunite properly. She wished things were different – less murder and mayhem, and more of what they had imagined a year-and-a-half back.

"I better go," Bonnie said at long last, pulling back from her, offering a smile, ignoring the sheen of tears in their eyes as she climbed into the driver's seat, slipped on the seatbelt, and steadily pulled out from the driveway.

* * *

Bonnie was respectively quick to loot her grandmother and father's houses, taking chunks of change from their cookie jars, fireplaces and an old hollowed-out book her grandmother tucked into the bookshelf for emergency purposes. By the time she made her way out of Mystic Falls, heading for the US-301 and James Madison Parkway crossing over into Maryland, she was a thousand-one-hundred-and-fifty dollars richer.

She bypassed the store, having found sea salt in her grandmothers kitchen, all of which she had stuffed into the trunk, along with a pillow, duvet, and a couple of the Martins' grimoires. Just because she was running—trying to find security—didn't mean that she was giving up or would be letting go of this heretic thing altogether. She couldn't. She was the reason they were here. But her hunt was devoid of pressure – at least for now.

She found a place to park outside the Thunderbird Motel under the shade of two trees, spending a good fifteen minutes listening to any sounds of Kai rousing in the backseat and hunting for the cheapest possible motel. There were two choices and only one that made the cut.

* * *

Damon blinked open his eyes and massaged his neck with a groan, waiting out the passing disorientation, a soft snarl bursting forth from his lips when he recollected what Bonnie had done to him.

"Where is she?" he said as his vision cleared and his brother came into view.

"Gone," Stefan replied, taking a sip of his whiskey. "She left thirty minutes ago."

"And you let her leave?"

"Did I have any other choice?"

"You should have knocked her out!"

"Damon—"

"Fuck you, Stefan!" Damon got to his feet within seconds, enraged. "I'm done with your principled 'let everyone think for themselves' bullshit!"

"You may be. But it's _her_ choice," Stefan argued.

Damon felt a squelching need to punch him. "Choice? What choice?"

"Give it a rest," Stefan said with vexation.

Damon whirled around and headed for the front door.

"Where are you going?" Stefan called after him, moving around the bar to track after.

"To hunt her down before she does something stupider."

"Like what?" Stefan asked, trying to make sense of what Damon was trying to _save_ her from.

"Him. Kai."

"Did you miss the part where Bonnie informed us of our mother's insistence to threaten her? Lily was here, Damon. She tried to hurt Jeremy. She _did_ hurt Jeremy."

"What's your point?" Damon asked without looking back. He didn't stop walking, either.

"How do you think Elena would feel about that?"

Damon reacted straightaway, slamming Stefan into the wall, a hand wrapped around his throat. Stefan countered, grabbed a hold of his wrist, and twisted harshly. Damon grunted as the bone snapped and the pain nearly drove him to his knees. Stefan shoved him back, watching as Damon righted his wrist with an aggrieved snarl, his eyes bright with detestation as he glared at his brother.

"I am not in the mood for your Doctor Phil routine, Stefan."

"Bonnie has a legitimate reason to be scared, Damon."

"I know that," Damon retorted, turning away from him to head for the door again.

"Then why are you fixed on dragging her back here?"

Damon stopped short, peering back at Stefan, indeterminate of how to reply to that.

"Just let her have tonight. Let her get some sleep somewhere without feeling harassed."

"Fine," Damon answered.

Stefan narrowed his eyes disbelievingly, waiting for the other shoe to drop. "Fine?"

"Yes, fine. If you want to sit back and wait for Bonnie to waste time with her newfound need to redeem the irredeemable, then so be it. But I won't be hanging around to do the same."

And with those finishing words Damon was gone, the front door left wide open in his immediate retreat. Stefan walked toward it with a sigh, examining the driveway, trying to listen for where Damon might have headed.

"Everything okay?" Caroline asked, appearing behind him, cutting short his concentration. She gazed over his shoulder to see what he was looking for, rather concerned herself. "Where's Damon?"

"Witch hunting," Stefan replied.

Caroline moved around him and then stepped out onto the small porch.

"What if he catches up to her?" she asked, sounding as if she didn't want that to happen.

"Caroline—"

"No," Caroline held up a hand to silence Stefan. She didn't want to hear Damon's actions justified.

"He won't kill her," Stefan assured her instead, reaching out to take her hand.

Caroline stiffened. "But he'll hurt her" she withdrew her hand sharply, taking a step off the porch and onto the lush grass, looking fierce and protective.

"Then… call her, warn her."

"What?"

"Let Bonnie know that Damon is on the lookout and find out where she is."

"You don't think it's too soon?"

Stefan folded his arms, leaning against the doorframe, a knowing smile on his lips.

"Okay, so I already tried to call her once," Caroline admitted without a hint of guilt. "But… I wanted to make sure she was okay. Bonnie was so upset when she left. I just… I worry."

"Try again," Stefan encouraged, needing to know for himself, too. He'd sleep better knowing she wasn't getting herself into any more trouble. Caroline removed her phone, dialed her friend's number and waited.

Bonnie didn't answer.

"She's probably driving," Caroline mused after her second attempt, sounding anything but happy. "She's being responsible."

"As she is most of the time."

A grimace swept across Caroline face, one that belied her support of that particular remark.

"How is Jeremy?" Stefan asked, changing the subject, giving Caroline chance to calm down. Caroline had gone to check on the young hunter, to make sure Jeremy was still sleeping and that there were no lurkers. Stefan suspected she needed a space from Damon, given he'd driven her best friend away.

"Out cold," she said, still facing forward. Her mind was wandering.

Stefan nodded, deciding to give Caroline the space to adopt what she wanted to do next and to pour himself another drink. He downed it in one go and refilled his glass.

"I still can't get a hold of her," Caroline murmured when at last she glided into the parlor.

Stefan walked over to her, slipping the refilled glass into her hand. "Drink."

She sat down and did so without a word. Stefan smiled affectionately. Caroline thrived on control and things were unreasonably chaotic, far beyond anything she could think to comprehend.

"Give it thirty minutes and try again." He fished his cell phone out, flicking through his call logs.

"You think he'll pick up?" she asked with a touch of disdain and drank.

"No, I want to check on Ric. I left him with a nurse they recommended at the hospital earlier. Couldn't leave him there all alone."

"Oh," Caroline smiled softly, touched that he'd thought of such things, and finished her drink in slow sips while he made the call and conversed with the nurse he called Mrs. Whittle.

"Still asleep," he informed, toying with his phone and the idea of trying to call Damon despite knowing he would ignore it. "He will be for a while."

"Maybe we should—"

"It's okay," he reasoned before she could assign herself a new task. "Get some sleep, read a book or paint your nails."

She didn't look enthused about tackling any of those things.

"That speed dry blue is in my bedside drawer," he added.

"What speed dry blue?"

Stefan shrugged. "I found it amongst my clothes when I moved back from your place."

"But that was months ago."

Stefan smiled a little wider. "I decided to hold onto it in case of a nail emergency."

"Whose? Yours or mine?"

He chuckled and held his arms out, "C'mere." A slow smile claimed her mouth, as though she resisted it at first thinking it might not be appropriate to smile when everything was so grim. She shifted into his embrace, and he wrapped his arms around her, making her sigh with the closest to comfort she could feel at the moment. "It's gonna be okay. We'll pull through. We always do."

"That's the thing," she murmured sadly. "What if this time it's too much to handle? We always pull through because Bonnie finds a way to help it. And now… now I don't even know where she is."

Stefan tightened his arms around her unconsciously, wary that she would cry. But she merely gave a deep, shaky sigh. "Bonnie's still a witch. She can handle herself," he reasoned. "Besides, Kai won't kill her – it'd do away with the spell he put on Elena which he probably means to keep working."

"No one can know what that psycho means," she scoffed, scowling as more worry washed through her. "I should've ripped his heart out when I had the chance."

Stefan opened his mouth to say something objective, and didn't.


	17. Chapter 17

_**A/N a.k.a Bonnie's foreword: leianaberrie1 **(Bonnie is Caroline's best friend and anchor. I think it's only natural that she would be protective of her in every respect. Especially after losing her so many times and the open wound that is her mother's death. She has a lot on her plate. As for Damon, he doesn't so much feel that he owns her. He's just Damon. He's stubborn, he has wants and for right now – after everything that's happened with Kai, after what's happened to Elena and Bonnie herself. He's doing the best that he can. Even if he is being an asshole about it and has his own agenda.), **Melika** (That's my fault. Kai has been an updating speed machine, and me, I've been slacking, and that's all on me. So very glad you've enjoyed the chapter, I hope you enjoy the next one as much! ;) ), **jordanjanellejoy** (Kai caused a lot of destruction for one guy. And it's all very recent – it's been two days and it's still a very fresh scar. Lily, being the boys' mother, is a tough cookie. They've seen what she can do in the ripper department, seen her lose it to get her family back, but they're not the problem at the moment. They don't even know if Kai brought them out or if it was a lie and too much is happening for them to take precedence in it. For Bonnie, it's different. It's tied to her life, her survival and it's the first thing on her mind. She doesn't want to die, she doesn't want to give anyone the opportunity to take her out and that's her priority. As for Damon's responsibility in this mess. He was a big part of it, a part he hasn't even cared to acknowledge, let alone accept – at least not yet.), **JustStockton** (Things are looking pretty bleak for our heroes and why wouldn't it? Bonnie just came back from the dead and now has her best friend tethered to her life? She's trying to make things right – which is hard in itself because she doesn't know how to begin. Caroline just lost her mother and is still reeling from her mass murder. Stefan is trying to keep her and his brother together while simultaneously taking care of their suicidal friend Alaric. There is so much happening for these people in general, so much individually and in such a short space of time that no one knows how to hold onto anyone else. It's tough, but eventually they'll find their way back and hopefully be stronger for it. But who knows at this point?)_

 _Thank you guys for taking the time to send us your reviews, it truly is appreciated._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 17**

"Um… what time is check out usually?"

"Noon. A minute later and you might as well stay the night," the man behind the reception desk said, eying the girl thoughtfully, as though he suspected she would try to push the limit.

Bonnie glanced back at the near on empty parking lot, save for five or six cars—aside from her own—parked here and there, one of which, she was sure, belonged to the manager. There wasn't much going on. Or maybe it was early? Perhaps it would pick up toward the evening and as people stopped to get some shuteye for the night. Either way, this place wasn't fantastic and regrettably happened to be self-serve. But where were you going to pay fifty dollars a night for lodging and food? _Nowhere_.

"Is there a store near here?" she asked, handing over the allotted money, and took the key.

"Hen Way Avenue," he replied, stabbing a stubby finger at the open page next to the information he'd scribbled down.

"Where?"

"Ten minutes north."

Bonnie signed and nodded her thanks, pocketing the change and the keys as she headed outside. She was going to need to fill up the tank of the car and buy some inexpensive necessities. She wasn't sure where she was headed or how far she intended to crawl into the Maryland state, but for now, this would tide her over for the night. Bonnie stared off into the distance at the oversized pool in the middle of nowhere. She could even fool herself into thinking that this was the road trip she was looking forward to upon her return – one devoid of loneliness and the urgency to escape some second-rate prison world. That reminded her, she had one promise to uphold before she could settle in. She removed her phone, pressed one on the device's console and patiently waited for the speed dial to kick in.

"Are things okay?" Eager and worried.

"I am stopping for the night."

"Where?" Caroline asked with obvious concern, not at all used to the idea of being left out of the loop.

Bonnie remained quiet, not wanting to share that piece of information with her, not wanting to put herself at risk.

"Bonnie?"

"I'm still here. I got to go. I don't have much airtime and wanted to check in."

"Okay, well, call me again later. Call collect!"

Bonnie didn't even think to ask about Damon, didn't hear him in the background or anyone else, for that matter.

"On the hour," she remarked and then hung up, knowing that if she didn't communicate with Caroline as promised, the blonde would make a point of hunting her down. It had been that way for years and well before their lives even integrated with that of the supernatural world—and for once, Caroline had the means with which to follow through.

Bonnie pocketed the cellphone and continued toward the car, intending to move it the short distance to the room she had asked to be at the very end of the semi-circled lot. She claimed she had a thesis to write and didn't want to deal with too much noise if things got crazy busy over the next few days. The guy hadn't queried further. Bonnie peered into the back out of habit, checking to make sure Kai was still unconscious and beneath the provided blanket. Not that she expected he wouldn't be—he needed to be if he planned to survive the daylight.

Only that didn't seem to be true.

She yanked open the back passenger door, glancing around wildly, and removed the blanket from inside with the other hand, purposely checking to make sure he wasn't around – as if he were playing with her.

He couldn't get very far—not with the link still in place. He had to be around here somewhere, but _where_?

"Kai," she called softly, wondering if it were the vervain that made him hazy and wild, if maybe he were stalking someone. She had seen what it does to vampires, seen the halogenic effect it could have if they were given too much. She only hoped that he was close and that her voice would inspire some kind of response. Bonnie glanced around, peering back at the reception not too far away, and stuffed the blanket inside before opting to move the car anyway, not wanting to alarm the man inside. Then she would search for her would-be prisoner.

He had to be close. She needed him to be close!

* * *

Kai woke up to unpleasant weakness lingering in his body and the stinging of vervain still assaulting his veins. He was on the backseat of a moving car, a plaid spread over him, making it hot and stuffy. Bonnie was driving – he could smell her and hear her quickened heartbeat signifying anxiety.

He held still as he was lying, deciding it was best to wait it out until they reached her destination. Besides, he had vervain to take care of. After some time of meditation, he eased his discomforts to bearable levels and felt the car coming to a stop. Bonnie pulled over for a short while, then started driving again. Next stop seemed to be final as she stepped out, and he listened to her footfalls walk away and fade before finally pushing the cover off and looking around. There wasn't much magic at his disposal due to Bonnie's earlier attempt to bleed him out and shooting him with what had to be an excessive dose of vervain, but Kai didn't need much for a cloaking spell to sneak out the car and survey the area.

Cadillac MOTEL read the sign sitting in front of a few low, long buildings of the living quarters. A wry smile creased his mouth. There was fun to commence.

Kai stared at his hands, holding them in front of him under the afternoon sun. Every now and then reddish patches would come through on his skin, pale away, and saturate again. He could sense the magic in him fighting to stand its ground despite vervain still keeping it tied up. The cloaking spell was drawing on it, and the sun felt scorching against every exposed area, from face to neck and hands. He looked up, thinking it couldn't continue much longer, and felt satisfied excitement at the sight of Bonnie heading back from the Reception. Weariness tugged at him, more so the longer he kept the cloaking spell running. He almost heard the clock ticking on it, but temptation had been too much to pass on.

He fully enjoyed her astonishment and panic when she saw he wasn't where she left him. She pulled the blanket out of the back, as if expecting to find him cowering somewhere under it, probably shrunk to the size of a shrimp to pull off something like that. Kai almost laughed out loud at how timid her voice came out when she called his name, looking around. He let her suffer for another few minutes as she circled the car, scanning the surroundings and giving in to more panic.

When he decided he had had enough of sunburns, he whispered, "Somnus," and collected her into his arms before she slumped to the ground, fast asleep. It yanked him right out of the magical hiding, but the sunlight got milder on him.

He fished the room key from her pocket and carried her in. The room was pleasant enough, despite how nasty the motel looked from the outside. The drawn dark yellow curtains provided a cozy lighting, turning the last rays of the afternoon sun into a dark gold to fill the room. The bedspread was the same color and looked clean. There was a TV across from the bed, a neat bathroom, and a clean closet.

Kai observed himself in the mirror that reflected the bed and Bonnie sleeping on it behind his back, and peeled the bloodstained shirt from his chest. The blood dried up around the shot holes. He thought longingly about the shower, but it wasn't the top priority yet.

A man in his late twenties was ramming his palm against the side of the wending machine a few doors down from them.

"You fucking piece of shit. You ate my change! Fucking rat hole."

In a moment, his back hit the front of it so hard, his potato chips pack slipped out and landed at his feet. He didn't notice, too startled at first. Before anger fully kicked in, Kai established the compulsion link and commanded to follow him.

In front of the bed where Bonnie slept, as peaceful as could be, Kai tucked into the guy's neck viciously, yet mindful of not letting him drip, and regarded Bonnie as he fed. While new blood coated his insides and did away with the vervain and weakness, Kai watched eagerly how Bonnie's face distorted into a grimace of distress and misery. The man he fed on wasn't allowed to make sounds, and it magnified his pain and terror, and thus the gruesome share Bonnie was getting through the link Kai put there in honor of the promise he made. Before the nameless guy started to faint, he withdrew, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and took a second to enjoy the hum of enforced magical energy coursing through his system. Kai was good to go for a few hours.

"Go to your room," he commanded, locking his eyes on the guy's dazed ones, "pick a decent, clean tee-shirt and bring it to me, then go pick up your chips at the wending machine and forget all what's happened in-between."

The guy nodded, a palm pressed to his aching and still bleeding neck, and went to do as he was told.

Kai looked back at Bonnie. He was done with his lunch, but she seemed far from done with the emotions it installed in her. He smiled and went out.

He met the guy at his door, took the shirt, and watched him bend for the chips pack and blink in bafflement as he straightened up. The guy felt for the wound and cursed under his breath, but there was more fright in it than aggravation – the fright and confusion a person would feel upon waking up with a wound he couldn't remember receiving.

The shower brought Kai more elation once hunger quitted being a problem. He enjoyed the streams of warm water, humming to himself as he smeared the motel's shower gel over the faint stains of blood caked on his torso from two days' imprisonment in the Boardinghouse. It was nice to wash it all off at last. He dried himself up, pulled on the jeans, and checked on Bonnie. Still out, a subtle wrinkle of a frown settled between her eyebrows. Kai left the old shirt next to her on the bed, put the guy's fresh one on the arm of a short couch under the window where he settled a moment later, overseeing the witch.

Bonnie began to stir slowly but surely, surprised to find herself—once she managed to open her eyes—in an unfamiliar bed. She peered around with alarm, disordered and frightened.

 _How did I get here?_ _Where am I?_

She pushed herself into an abrupt sitting position and withdrew her hand as it brushed against something unexpected. A shirt. She shuddered as an ill-omened chill rushed down her spine – like she was being watched. It was then, as she looked down at the crumpled shirt in the middle of the mattress, that Bonnie remembered the motel and that she had been searching for Kai. She intended to move the car the short distance to in front of their room and then, all she knew was blackness. Had he knocked her out? Bitten her? She checked her neck, as if to make sure there wasn't some physical reminder, not that she suspected there would be, she still had vampire blood in her system.

Thankfully, the room wasn't so big that it left space to wonder if she was alone or not. Bonnie pushed off the mattress and stood, certain she would find him in the shower. She glanced around, irritated that there wasn't anything at hand with which to defend herself and even more exasperated that she deemed it necessary. It was as she drew closer to the closed door that she remembered the stinging chill of death, that link that made her heart skip a beat during her lively dreams, fearful that he might have someone in there with him – which he killed while she was out.

"Look… if you're in there—you better be alone," she warned, hoping he might have made it easier on her. She pushed open the bathroom door with a foot and peered inside, astonished to find it empty. The small mirror that hung over the sink was steamed and the towel was damp, but that—and the single piece of clothing—was the only indication that he had been here.

Another thought occurred to her, one that came in violently and vibrantly, a sickening reminder that made her dash for the only other door in the room. She threw it open, breathing a sigh of relief when she took into account the car. It was still here. He hadn't left – not this time. Bonnie slid a hand into her pocket next, smiling to herself with relief when she felt the money brush her fingertips, along with her cellphone. He hadn't taken anything. He hadn't done anything. He had simply knocked her out and taken off.

"Now what?" she breathed aloud in a defeated tone, her momentary success turning into that of aggravation, unexpectedly comprehending how screwed she was and unsure of where to even start looking.

 _How'd he manage to break my link? Then again, how'd he manage to do anything?_

"If you wanted my shirt off, all you had to do was say a word," Kai said, revealing himself lounging on the couch with his boots on the edge of the bed, ankles crossed. The fresh shirt still lay on the couch's arm next to him.

She whirled around, almost emitting a scream of surprise.

"Ah-ah!" he raised a hand, enclosing her in a magical hold as he thought she would dash for the door or produce a spell, and made a tsking sound. "I think it's quite fair for me to kinda get even in that department, don't you think?"

Waving a hand over his bare torso in a brisk hint, Kai murmured a spell and observed her top sport holes with black rims that were growing as if someone held a burning match under the fabric to form each of them. Within a couple of seconds, her shirt turned into a black snowfall of ashes that disappeared before reaching the carpet.

What was he even talking about? What was there to even out? Bonnie shuddered as an unexpected draft tickled her midsection, arms and then breasts. She peered down at her chest, amazed to find her sweater peeling away from her skin, deteriorating around her in clumps of substantial and useless blackish ash. It didn't hurt.

She stared at him in horror, and Kai grinned wider, doing away with her bra in the same manner.

Her mouth fell open, her eyes wide with horror, unable to raise her arms as her bra, too, disappeared, leaving her exposed and vulnerable. She _hated_ that feeling. She struggled against the enchanted hold—at least she convinced herself she was, only her muscles wouldn't cooperate.

When she was bare waist-up, he canted his head to one side, marveling at his work as if she were a famous statue in a museum he's always dreamt of seeing with his own eyes. The zing of arousal stirred within him as he drank her in. "Now that I call fair and square," he grinned with genuine mirth, and released her.

Bonnie stumbled slightly at the unexpected release, nearly landing on her face, her lips drawn into a thin line of displeasure. The view was fabulous, so was her embarrassment, and that shade of flush on her cheeks which made her look both fresh and unearthly, like a nymph spooked from the spring she has been bathing in.

"Veniat ad me," she murmured with a chastened snarl, extending a hand toward the bathroom, the used and marginally wet towel appearing in her right hand within a blink of an eye. She wrapped it around her torso, toying with the idea of throwing something at his head, giving him an aneurism or even snapping his spine.

She smiled instead, forcing herself to calm down and accept that maybe she deserved that. She had tortured him, after all, slit his wrists, played a bloodletting game, and dragged him across a state line.

The short but bloody battle within the witch over how she wanted him to pay for the prank didn't escape Kai's attention, however, instead of a painful blast in his brain he nearly expected, she granted him a smile. So calm and composed he didn't know whether it excited or infuriated him.

"And that's it?" she asked after a moment, pushing aside her rearing pride and the flush taking a hold of her cheeks to fix him with a rather neutral look. "We're even? You're done punishing me?"

Kai raised his eyebrows in an amused surprise. "Punishing? Oh, Bons, that wasn't punishment. It's FUN. Lighthearted, genuine fun."

Lighthearted? Fun? Bonnie fought the impulse to strangle him, to bang his head against the wall and let him know just how much FUN she had throughout his mistimed game of hide-n-seek.

He smiled, clasping his hands at the back of his head, and let his eyes stray down from her face as he did away with the towel much like with her top. "You took me out of the basement, delivered a room with a shower I wanted. Why would I punish you?"

"Maybe," she began snippily, not wanting to give him anymore of a show than he had already gifted himself, "it's because I vervained you and dragged you to a one shop town in the middle of nowhere?" She patted at the pillow she grabbed to cover herself with a mock affection, fingering the cotton material for emphasis. "Then again, I am only wagering a guess in light of the fact that my list of sins—where you are concerned—is a long one."

She flashed him another smile, desiring to throw his couch over, wishing he wasn't posed so arrogantly, so comfortably and indisputably preventing such an impulsive retaliation.

The smile on her face seemed to Kai more vicious than anything friendly or neutral she tried to come up with. As much as her self-control tickled his excitement, it also irked him with the masks she tried to wear.

"You weren't comfortable?" she asked, ignoring her own discomposure. "I mean… I should at least get some kind of remuneration for not having you go up in literal smoke, right?"

He allowed a lenient smile and shrugged. "Good thinking, bad execution, but who cares. I'm good now, aside from being peckish, which is still your responsibility, unless you decided to let me hunt freely."

"It's funny you should say that," Bonnie said and inelegantly folded her arms across the pillow, briefly scanning the room to see if he'd brought in her bags or if all that was left to wear was the shirt upon the duvet cover. "Because while I was out of it, I was sure I felt something akin to you feeding." She scurried a glance at the carpeted floor, the bathroom, and then his smiling face. "On someone else."

She let that sink in, reading his expression, looking for a decided reaction. Kai gave none, regarding her with an inscrutable smile.

"Besides, as I seem to recall and from our last talk, I told you I'm not doing that anymore. Deal's off, remember? And since my life is constant jeopardy, I am in no mood to play how-weak."

Kai clicked his tongue in acknowledgment and slapped his knees resolutely as he got up. "Alrighty, free hunt it is." He grinned, winking at her, and strode to the door, snapping his fingers as he passed her. A quiet yelp as her pants burned off her body into nothing was the last sound before Kai closed their door behind him and dashed to his earlier victim's room.

"Son of a bitch," Bonnie cursed as the door swung closed behind him, swatting the burning fabric off sensitive areas, furiously rubbing her palms against her thighs to soothe the singeing sting.

As soon as the initial panic subsided, she hopped onto the mattress, yanked the bloodied shirt from the middle of the bed and pulled it on, cringing when the crusted body fluid brushed against her abdomen. Bonnie pulled it off within seconds, tossing it aside, exchanging it for the shirt Kai had left on the couch, and confident it would fall in such a way that it would cover her ass. It didn't – not completely.

"Fuck!" she cursed again, weighing up her pride versus some human's life for all of a second before sprinting out the door. The last time she had been naked in public – she had _just_ been born.

The guy answered the door and frowned, intending to ask what Kai wanted, when Kai pushed him back into his apartment, entering after. The guy didn't have time to fully form a question or an outraged objection before Kai ripped the clumsy bandage from his sore neck and tucked into the red marks his teeth had left an hour ago. The guy gurgled, his hands propping into Kai futilely to push him away while he drank in large gulps, weakening him.

Bonnie drew to a standstill, rocked by the coldness that careened through her, nearly crippling her in the process. Tears welled in her eyes, emotion she forced aside so that she could concentrate on the parking lot, scanning everything and thankful that no one else appeared to be around. There was only a handful of cars and night was starting to roll in, even the overhead porch lights were coming on. She only hoped they stayed holed up in their rooms.

Bonnie ran along the rows and rows of rooms, testing each door as she went, making sure Kai hadn't vanished into one of them or that he hadn't tackled the man behind the reception desk. She knew she made a mistake as soon as the manager saw her. You didn't need to be a rocket scientist to know she wasn't wearing much under her shirt.

"What the hell are you doing?!" he hissed, his eyes widening, his face drawn into a look of blooming irritation. "There ain't no nudity allowed around here, this isn't one of them der' swingers places! Hey!" he called when she turned her back on him and dashed for the next room. "HEY!" he demanded, progressively louder, clambering out from around his desk to chase after her. "Don't make me call the police, lady!" Bonnie suspected he wouldn't – not right away.

Kai was nearing the end of it – the guy's heart had slowed down significantly and was going to give out those tantalizing, electrifying last beats that emanated more energy at that very last moment of a person's life than the whole torture and feeding altogether. Kai longed for that boost and its mighty charge of pleasure.

Instead of the expected, Bonnie busted through the door, yelling, "Motus!"

Her power smacked Kai into the wall, and the dying guy with him, since Kai was still holding his shoulders. They tumbled to the floor. Kai was back up next instant, caught a quick once-over of Bonnie in the shirt he had procured from the poor bastard at his feet. She looked furious and terrified at the same time, preparing for the next move but not knowing the exact one to pick. Kai could hear someone's hasty running feet thumping towards this room and a male voice crying about calling the police if she didn't stop her indecency right now.

Bonnie flinched as the wounded stranger also cracked into the wall. The layout of the bedroom was exactly the same as that of the one she had booked and left little space to maneuver. Kai got to his feet immediately, making her regret her impulsive action. She should have snapped Kai's spine while his back was turned to her!

Aware of the time ticking away for the guy he hadn't ended yet, Kai gave Bonnie a wry smile and made the only piece of clothing hanging on her disappear in a brisk but bright flash of magical flames, leaving her naked and flabbergasted at the exact moment when the motel manager let himself in, panting.

He scoped the scenery with a professionally sharp-on-details snapshot gaze that stopped on Bonnie; he gaped, choked, his eyebrows flicking up and back down to knead into a scowl of fury. "How dare you—" he started.

"Somnus," Kai said. The manager rolled his eyes and slumped with a bony thud. Bonnie's eyes snapped to Kai, but he had her in his power's grasp already. He was smiling at her with an impish admiration. "One ballsy witch you are, I give you that. But let me, in my turn, remind you what I said before: if it's not your blood, then it's someone else's. I'm not really fazed whose. And now, if you excuse me, I need to finish my lunch."

'Stop!' she screeched internally, watching as he hauled the man off the floor by his collar and tucked into his neck, filling her with a portentous rush of coldness she now and always would associate to death. Bonnie grimaced with regret as the man's body slid onto the mattress, no longer breathing and no longer speckled with healthy color. Tears gathered in her eyes but didn't fall. She couldn't, wouldn't make this about her.

Kai licked his lips while the pleasure settled, and looked at Bonnie.

Naked and dismayed, she had tears in her eyes, her face wincing.

He dipped his hand into the guy's bag, rummaged, and produced another shirt. He pulled it on and pointed at the manager at her feet. "You brought him on your tail, so I believe you can handle it with the same iron will you used when stating our deal was off." He gave the most enchanting smile, tipping his imaginary hat, and exited the room with a parting whisper that released Bonnie from her trap and rose the manager from his slumber. He stirred and groaned as Kai ghosted back to their room, leaving them alone.


	18. Chapter 18

_**A/N a.k.a Bonnie's foreword:** **JustStockton** (Bonnie is by no means expecting to be Kai's personal chew toy for the rest of her life. This isn't an easy problem to fix that she brought upon herself. People died. An entire family. An entire coven. People that are sitting on her conscience. Bonnie is doing her best to handle things differently, to keep her cool and maintain a semblance of understanding for his rage and her own fears in check. She is still maintaining that she needs to protect her friends and family and most importantly herself. She also fears her magic and dying again. It isn't easy, all of this new and overwhelming to her and Kai—being as hurt, volatile and now bloodthirsty and vengeful—isn't making it easy on her. None of the men in her life are. Aside from Stefan. As for the shirt thing, it wasn't meant to be a humiliation, it wasn't meant to degrade her, and it was playful in Kai's twisted way. Kai was getting back at her for ruining his shirt. He was evening out the playing field and making sure Bonnie knows she has no leeway with him. The second time Kai did it, he did it to buy himself some time to do what he wanted to do. To distract her.), **goldngrl98** (We are thrilled to hear that!), **Melika** (This NEXT one is for you! You ask you shall receive! ;) ), **falconrukichi** (Bonnie has too much she needs to deal with to be powerful and no time in which to do it. She has no idea about the heretics. She still has to learn. It's still early stages. She's still figuring things out, still trying to find her strength again and how to do with the repercussions of bad decisions. And nor does she appear to be succeeding yet. Stefan is pure love. I adore him, too. Mama Salvatore is… well, I wish I knew what you meant by that. Also we have Bamon coming, slowly.), **pennytree** (Unfortunately this story isn't meant to be easy for Bonnie or Kai. They've their respective demons to deal with and regrettably for our heroine – he happens to be one of them. A big one. Bonnie screwed up big time by leaving him in 1903, the consequences of that choice and momentary weakness have been great and something that's haunting her. Kai is, of course, rotten. He was screwed over. He only went to 1903 because he wanted to help Bonnie, to make up for his past sins in her eyes and have her see him as a better person. He needed her to see that—perhaps because of his feelings for her, for caring for her—he was desperate for Bonnie to recognize that. She didn't. And like every other person in his life was quick to condemn him, to write him off and hand deliver him to another prison. It might have been different if she'd told him to back off, if she ignored him and let him live his life – but she didn't. She took it upon herself to twist his fate. Also, we haven't even touched on the abuse he suffered being fed on by starving vampires and having no way out. He cracked, he split right down the middle and the person to finally do it, to make that happen was Bonnie Bennett. Not that he is an innocent or that he is a saintly guy, but for a second there, for a brief minute he had a chance to turn his life around. It's tough, its ugly but he too is allowed to be angry. As is she.), **itscalledkarma** (Awh, yeah, I guess he does have some similarities with s1 Damon. That huge chip on their shoulders? Only this time Kai's hurt is recent and not easily brushed under the rug.), **jordanjanellejoy** (Haha! Yeah, he is the master of mind games. Bonnie thinks she knows him—or at least understands him a bit—thinks she has a means of controlling him, of keeping the peace and then he goes out of his way to make sure to prove otherwise. The villainous bastard. ;))_

 _And my responses got away from me, I am so sorry. Thanks very much for your reviews guys!_

* * *

 **Chapter 18**

Bonnie stood rooted to the spot for a few seconds, staring at the lifeless man on the mattress, heedless and unfeeling of her nudity, abhorring herself for how far she'd let this escalate. That was a senseless error!

"That's it," she heard a voice state behind her with exasperation as the manager pushed himself off the ground. "I'm calling the police and I'm going to throw you the fuck out of here!"

"Duratus," Bonnie decreed in a steely and deadly murmur. She didn't even need to look back, finding herself unable to do so, and feeling listless and as if Kai had slew a small part of her along with the stranger before her. The manager gaggled, cursed and found himself unable to move.

"What the fuck," he murmured, his face turning ashen with unease. Bonnie used her right hand to beckon him over the threshold, the door slamming shut behind him as she guided him into the bathroom. "Y-you—you let g-g-go of m-me r-r-right this instant!" he choked out, irresolute of what was going on, but like any sane person sensing he needed to be afraid when whatever was going on was far from godly.

"Manere," she responded, releasing him, seeing his features contort with terror when he found himself incapable of leaving the bathroom, not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't. "I'll come back for you. But first, I have some unfinished business to attend to."

"What?" he said, indisputably confused and overwhelmed by what was going on. Bonnie crouched and rummaged through the same bag Kai had, yanking free another shirt and a pair of clean navy-blue boxers. She pulled both items on.

"I suggest you don't draw to much attention to yourself," she instructed, heading for the door. "This'll be hard to explain and things will only get more complicated. I'll fix this." The same way she planned to fix Kai.

"Are you crazy?" he spat back, making her see red, an image of Damon's spiteful features springing to mind like a slap to the face. "You c-can't leave me here, lady! This… this is a federal crime! It's kidnapping!"

She ignored him, picking up the lamp off the side of the table, and smashed the bulb.

"Hey! Y-you can't do that! Stop! That's destruction of property!"

Bonnie ignored him, throwing aside the remainder of the small lamp, keeping a small shard to cut her palm, concentrating on the blood that flowed to the surface – _his_ blood. A medium she used to have a better sense of Kai, to make finding him easier. With the small distance between rooms, she didn't suppose he'd pick up on the link again – not yet, anyway, but he would if he tried to run any further. But wherever he was, she made sure to shorten the leash—to reel him in like a fish on a hook—temporarily cutting short his unneeded air supply and making things all the more uncomfortable for him.

"Remember what I said," she jeered, feeling far angrier than she needed to be with the man. "No complications."

She started for the door, satisfied that Kai would be incapable of feeding on anyone else at the moment, knowing that only as they drew closer he'd once again find ease. She gave in to the equivocal tingles working as an internal GPS, surprised to find that he had headed back to their room.

* * *

Kai washed his face, then sloshed some water around in his mouth and spat it out into the basin, willing to part with the guy's lingering scent and taste. It wasn't his meal of choice, and he intended to do whatever it took to make sure he didn't have to resort to junk food anymore. Voices from the scene he had left behind reached him here faintly, and from them he realized Bonnie used magic to contain the flabbergasted motel manager who had to be in shock or something, because otherwise Kai couldn't explain how he didn't notice the dead body on the bed.

He dabbed his face dry on the remaining towel and was halfway to the table with the TV set to get the remote for it when Bonnie burst in, clad in the dead guy's shirt and boxers that were big for her and had already slipped threateningly low on her hips.

She glared, craving to set the whole place, and him, alight as he'd done her so many times over the last hour.

Kai let out a chuckle – it was hard not to, given the hilarity of her look and that fierce expression on her face, her hair in disarray, a flush of hurry and anger adorning her cheeks.

"You've made your point. You win," she said, extending a hand to immobilize him the same way he'd done her, the same way he'd so carelessly rendered her helpless. "But that's the last time."

Kai considered fighting her power, but held it back just yet – if she finally decided to retaliate, it was worth it to let her – and regarded her with a lenient, understanding expression. "You'll have to elaborate, sweetling. I'd rather not opt for reading your mind right now – from the way you're scorching me with your eyes, I might catch fire in there."

"You killed him!" she snapped, reaching down to grasp the boxers, pulling them up once more to keep them from falling around her knees. She _needed_ her own clothes. She stepped inside and swung the door closed with her foot, keeping him in place – not quite finished. "You didn't _have_ to do that."

She knew the information was pointless and yet she needed to air it, to make it known, not only to him, but to herself. She needed to be reminded that _he_ went too far – that it was _his_ fault. And yet, in spite of all that, it did nothing to soothe the hatred, not only for him, but herself. Bonnie sauntered toward the mattress, eyeing the black ash, the residual scrapes of evidence and what she remembered was their—her—money. _Fuck_. She walked toward the pile, touched a hand to it, remembering, as it spread upon the carpet like fine dust, that it had taken her phone, too. If Caroline didn't get a hold of her soon—or at least when she called—she'd be frantic.

 _I should have just fed him._

She walked over to the bathroom and released her hold on him, slamming the door shut behind her, unconvinced she could handle staring into those mirth-filled eyes any longer. She needed a breather. She needed to think.

She didn't even consider if it would help locking him up now – he'd already done all he could do and Bonnie now had a mess to clean up.

Kai felt her power let go and flexed his shoulders before grabbing the remote he was heading for. It was disappointing to see she still had some miles to cover before she started to fight back. He sprawled on the bed with an arm behind his head and turned on the TV. "Your vampire sense is a bit off, Bonsy," he called to her, flicking through channels. "I _did_ have to do that. Who would scrape off the icing to eat just the cake? That's crazy. And don't pout – after all, I merely did what I told you I'd do. Fair and square."

Tears of frustration stung her eyes. She chuckled softly, a sound that held zero joy and all kinds of anger. What of ANY of this was fair? She walked over to the sink, bending over at the waist to wash her face, and then snatched some toilet paper off the holder, dabbing at her eyes and nose. She felt a bit better – cooler.

She stayed quiet, choosing not to respond to his quip as she lifted the end of the shirt into her mouth, rolling the waist of the boxers over and over to make it thicker, hoping it would act as a crude belt.

"I'm going to go clean up," she stated once she emerged from the bathroom, hardly waiting on his response as she headed for the door again—knowing now that he'd stay—why else would he have come back here?

Kai made a sound of acknowledgement, returning his eyes to the TV screen. "Have fun!" he called after her as the door swung closed, and grinned, stretching.

Bonnie headed for the car, needing to get her grimoire and some of her ingredients. She couldn't leave the manager there – once he calmed down, he'd realize that the person on the bed was dead and then—well, that would make for a whole new explosion.

* * *

Damon marched into the boarding house, slamming the front door behind him, uncaring of its age or his vampire strength. He was too angry to care. Caroline appeared in front of him, fire poker in hand.

"Do you mind getting that thing out of my face?"

"Sorry," she responded after a moment's consideration, making no move to lower her threatening arm, disappointed to see he wasn't carrying a flailing Bonnie in his arms. "I thought it might be the second wave."

"What now?" he asked, an irritated frown marring his brow in unobtrusive inquiry.

"Lily."

Damon grunted in acknowledgement of the trouble his mother was causing before swiftly discharging it. He wasn't concerned with Lily's drama, leaving that solely to his brother to take care of.

"You didn't find Bonnie?" Caroline asked,

"Does it look like I found her?" Damon spat.

"That's not what I mean and you know it."

"No, I didn't find her. I was too late," Damon snapped, seizing the fire poker, holding it with two hands as he walked around her, testing the weight, remembering the last time he'd used it. He could go for another round.

"Did you try her house?"

"That was the first place I stopped."

"Her grandmother's place?"

Damon cast a jaded look over his shoulder, craving to use the piece of steel on her skull.

"Okay," Caroline responded, reading his annoyance, her hands raising in irritable defensiveness. She hated talking to him. "What about the gas station on route forty? She had to stop somewhere to fill up."

"I can guarantee you that after a dozen or so arguments about nothing over the course of four months I've checked every available nook and cranny she likes to run off to! She isn't here."

Caroline made a sound of distress and plopped down on an armrest. "I spoke to her about an hour and a half ago."

His brows arched in a way that suggested she had his interest and should keep talking.

"But only for a second."

He rolled his eyes, sliding the poker back into its slot beside the fireplace, moving to the liquor cabinet.

"Bonnie said she was okay but she didn't tell me where she was. I tried to call her again a little bit ago and all I'm getting is a direct to voicemail message. What if something is wrong?"

"Something _is_ wrong."

"What?" she asked, muddled by his statement and worried that he may have learnt something new, something he was keeping to himself as he regularly tended to do.

"You're dating an idiot."

"Excuse me?" Caroline balled her hands into fists before forcing herself to loosen them. "Stefan is _not_ an idiot. He is cleaning up YOUR messes. And I'll have you know we're not dating."

Damon pooh-poohed, rolling his eyes again, and poured himself a drink to numb of the brain cells it took to listen. He wasn't in the mood for any more of their relationship drama. Not when his was non-existent.

"We've talked about it," she continued as if she needed to purge and make him understand some the trivial rationality they'd reached. "And we're talking things slow."

"You're virtually married," Damon observed after downing his first glass, enjoying the acquainted burn and dash of inhibition killer. He needed more. He needed a lot more. He poured another.

"Can we not talk about this right now?"

"I wasn't," Damon said, sounding bored by the topic and as if he were a little tipsy already. Maybe he'd been drinking while he was hunting? She wouldn't put it past him. "I was stating facts."

Caroline pushed off the chair with an uncontained sigh and stared into the unlit fireplace in silence.

"Where is he, by the way?" Damon asked, making sure she knew he only wanted the need-to-know specifics.

"Upstairs. He needed some sleep."

The older Salvatore made a sound of acknowledgement and traced his fingers up and down the ridges of the decanter. "He shouldn't have let her go," he said, a glass poised against his lower lip, propping his hand on top of the bottle. "He should have wrangled her down to the ground and hogtied her."

Caroline looked disgusted but made no move to defend Stefan. Not that it was his fault. She had also played a part, she had also given Bonnie the legroom to move. Caroline should have been more insistent.

"I'm surprised you didn't," Damon stated as if he'd read her mind and where those thoughts were headed, eyeing her thoughtfully over the rim of his glass, and finished off his fourth drink with a quick flick of the wrist.

"I'm not so sure she would have forgiven me," Caroline said, her blue eyes darting to Damon as though she knew she made a mistake by voicing that. He smirked for all of a second before becoming surly again. "She seems pretty adamant about doing things on her own."

"But she's not alone," Damon pointed out, as if Caroline had somehow forgotten about her murderous hanger-on. "She's out there somewhere. With _him_. With the hellboy."

Caroline said nothing, raising a hand to her lips, nervously chewing on one of her nails. She hadn't done that since her pre-school days and nor did she think she'd let up until her friend was with her again. Caroline checked her phone, making sure she hadn't missed a call, and redialed Bonnie. Damon watched her and waited.

"Fuck," she uttered under her breath. "Still voicemail. I—I don't know what, but—I feel like something is wrong. She promised she'd call me back, that she'd keep me up to date on the hour and now—"

Damon picked up his fifth drink, swirling the contents, watching the amber liquid go round and round.

"Wha—what?" Jeremy asked around a mouthful of bread as he walked into the parlor. He was wearing a tank top, boxer shorts and looking as if he was suffering a hangover, sporting a balloon-sized lump on his forehead.

"Whoa," Damon commented, eyeing the injury. Wasn't hunter-healing supposed to help with that? What of vampire blood?

"Yeah," Jeremy agreed without sparing him a look. His head was killing him.

"Are you feeling okay? Do you need painkillers?" Caroline asked, feeling sorry for him and a touch guilty.

"I've taken something," Jeremy said. He knew the house well enough, and he and Matt stocked up on pharmaceutical drugs, things the Salvatore brothers hadn't had the time to rid the place of yet. Thankfully.

Damon didn't bother to apologize for his mother's antics, in fact, he didn't hold himself responsible for her actions at all. Why should he? Lily didn't kill Jeremy, after all. He was still here and ready to annoy another day.

"What were you talking about?" Jeremy asked, pushing past the awkward and tense silence wrapping around the three of them.

Caroline glanced at Damon and delicately shook her head, not wanting to alert anyone else of what she'd told him. Well, not Jeremy at least. He was here for Alaric, and Bonnie wouldn't appreciate getting him involved any more than he already was.

"Bonnie," Damon answered, walking away from the bar to take a seat on the armrest she'd abandoned. Caroline glared, her penetrating gaze fixed upon his face.

"What about her?" he responded, looking around, as if he only now realized she wasn't in the immediate vicinity and that she should be. "Where is she?"

"Missing," Damon informed, making no move to explain or put the suddenly troubled boy's mind at ease.

"Missing?" Jeremy parroted, setting aside his plate of food, pushing himself to a wobbly standing. He'd been sleeping for over five hours and he still looked off-color. "Missing how? Where?"

Damon sighed, refraining from rolling his eyes as the foolhardy kid stiffened and prepared to go into battle mode. All he needed now was a crossbow and the look would be complete. "We don't know." Damon was unperturbed by his lie or the fact that Caroline was becoming more annoyed by the second. He didn't need Jeremy jumping down his throat.

"We need to find out," Jeremy stated as if it were a mere walk in the park.

"That's what we're _trying_ to do, Robin Hood. I don't suppose you've made any fancy friends at that new art school of yours?"

Damon knew he hadn't gone there, Alaric told him about it a day after he put him on the bus, and to be honest, Damon supported it. Why not? Jeremy was a hunter, why let that go to waste? He never told Elena and he'd have denied it had she asked him – it wasn't his business.

"What?" Jeremy looked mildly confused by the question and the implication he read in Damon's tone. Caroline, too, looked muddled. She glanced between them awaiting an explanation.

"Witches," Damon clarified. "You're an out and out hunter now, aren't you? That's what you're doing?"

Jeremy remained close-lipped.

"No need to worry, Jer. Big sister isn't around to scold you. You're free to make your own decisions."

"You know?"

"Ric told me. He thought it best I knew so that if he ever needed my help to get you out of something, we'd skip a few channels and save him the hassle of trying to come up with an explanation."

"Did um… did Elena know?"

"You think she'd be locked away in a tomb playing sleeping beauty if she did?"

"I guess not," he replied, his eyes glazing a second as dizziness swept over him.

Caroline reached for him, helping him to sit down, crouching to check on him like his sister would have. "Are you sure you're okay? Are you sure we shouldn't take you to see a doctor?"

"I'm fine," Jeremy said stubbornly, brushing aside the concern to focus. "We need to find Bonnie." And then another thought dawned on him, one that filled him with renewed rage. "What about Kai?"

"See, that's the thing, buddy," Damon sneered unkindly. "Bonnie took him on a walk about."

"Why would she?"

"Because Damon's an asshole," Caroline iterated, spearing the culprit in question with a heated look.

Damon shrugged, not at all caring about her opinion. He was what he was.

"What did you do?" Jeremy spat, his cheeks flushing with indignation, ever ready to protect her from the big bad. He still hadn't realized that there was more to their relationship and things had changed.

"I tried to protect her," Damon stated, finishing off his final drink, setting aside the glass.

Caroline didn't protest his statement, her eyes focusing on him thoughtfully. She was still trying to wrap her head around their relationship and the hypothetical trust they had in one another. Caroline had yet to see it.

"So, back to my question and what I hope is a beneficial answer," Damon looked at Jeremy. "Do you know any witches?"

"No, I err…"

"Great." Damon heaved a defeated sigh and removed his phone. He didn't want to call Lucy again, to pull her into things, especially after he took blood from her before to help retrieve Bonnie from nineteen-ninety-four. But this was an emergency. He needed a locator spell, and he needed one now.

"Damon?" Caroline said as he turned to head out of the parlor. He needed to make the phone call in a quiet space needed to come up with an adept lie. She'd believe that Bonnie was kidnapped by a crazed witchpire, right? Why wouldn't she. It was true, sort of.

"Go wake Stefan and make sure junior finishes his dinner. If I accomplish what I want, we might be on the road tonight."

"The road to where?" Caroline asked, totally confused. One minute they were talking solutions and the next? Damon made himself scarce without replying. "Damon! Dammit." Frustrated, she curled her hands into fists at her sides as he disappeared. She didn't go after him, instead turning around to glance at Jeremy who was looking at her questioningly. "I guess I'll go wake Stefan."

Jeremy nodded and stared after her as she disappeared, his head reeling with thoughts of why Bonnie would do this, why she would leave willingly, what Damon did to upset her, and why she'd taken Kai. How _could_ she take off with Kai?

* * *

Thankfully, in her haste to find Kai Bonnie left the keys in the Ford's ignition and hadn't pocketed it. She bent down, feeling around for the latch for the trunk, straightening up as it popped open, coming face to face with a pair of inquisitive green eyes beneath one of the few blue lightbulbs that ran along the outside.

"Hi," Bonnie greeted, a bit startled by the lady's presence. She hadn't expected to see anyone or at least she had hoped that the world stopped spinning to make things easier. The woman looked as though she was searching for something or more significantly – someone. What if she knew the deceased?

 _No, Bonnie. He was alone._

 _Or was he?_

"Hi," the woman parroted, tucking a strand of her messy blonde hair behind her ear. "I, um… you didn't happen to catch the earlier commotion, did you? I went in search of Gris, but he doesn't appear to be behind his desk."

"Gris?" Bonnie asked, unaware she'd been holding her breath for a second or that her heart was racing again.

"The manager of this place," she answered as though Bonnie missed the biggest clue, putting to rest some of Bennett's fears and jumpstarting a whole other issue.

"I haven't seen him—well, not since I checked in," Bonnie fibbed with an apologetic smile. She walked around the back of the car, hoping the woman would leave before Bonnie was forced to head back into the room for pretense sake. The witch opened the trunk, pulling her bag from inside, balancing it on the edge, and lifted the strap to her shoulder.

"If you do see him," the woman began, taking a step off the pavement and toward her, making sure she was seen, "please do me a favor and send him to C16." Bonnie nodded and tendered her a wider smile. "It's in the middle," the woman determined, jerking a thumb behind her and about six doors down. It was one of those Bonnie had knocked on.

"Well, um… nice meeting you. I should go and try to get some sleep," Bonnie said, opting to forgo her earlier plan to head directly for the murder victim's room.

"Aren't you staying this side?" the blonde asked, unable to contain her need to pry, pointing toward the door Bonnie had parked in front of. Bonnie guessed the tee-shirt and boxers were too offensive.

"No. It's, ah, it's my friend's. I'm staying this side." That sounded stupid coming out of her mouth. What if the woman saw her on the other side again? "At least for ah… to-tonight." Bonnie totally sucked at this whole cover-up-a-murder thing.

"Oh," the woman's smile dimming, her eyes narrowed uncertainly. Maybe she had seen the manager come in? Maybe she'd spoken to him? "Anyway. Please don't forget to send Gris my way."

"If I see him," Bonnie amended, forcing herself to stay confident and relaxed. The blonde walked alongside her, slower, eyeing her like a hawk as Bonnie came within reach of the room's doorknob. Bonnie twisted it, pushing it open, and waved slightly as she slipped inside. She locked the door behind her, dropping her bag to the carpeted floor.

"What did you do to him?" Gris said from his position on the bathtub's rim, his eyes fixed ahead and through the girl, on the motionless figure on the mattress. He was either stoned or stunned. Bonnie couldn't tell.

"Nothing," she blurted out. "I never—"

"You killed him," he replied as if things were falling into place for him and he could now suddenly understand what was going on and what he was playing witness to. "I tried to call for him, I tried to—"

"No!" she struck back straightaway, feeling the need to clarify. "No, that was—"

"Why would you do that?" he asked, cutting her off, smothering her excuse. "Why would you kill him? Is it money? Are you looking to ransom me? To rob me?"

"None of the above," Bonnie retorted, feeling a cold chill to lace through her. Even saying it aloud sounded like a lie and as if she was hard-pressed to believe her own stories. "I don't want to hurt you. Nor was I trying to."

She grabbed the end of the duvet, pulling it over the dead man's head, and then stepped onto the mattress, grabbing the fabric to pull him higher, straining and doing her best to roll him up like a human burrito. She managed to turn him over three times. A process that took her near on forty minutes. He was heavy.

"Help me carry him to the bath," she instructed, seeing the manager stare at the doorway with open horror. She closed her eyes, removing the barrier spell, beckoning for him to join her. He took one step, then a second, and by the third was charging for the front door. It was as if his fear made him stupid, his hand grazing the door like a skittish animal's claws, dropping the key in the process, giving her enough time to immobilize him a second time.

"Wha—What are y-you?" he asked, looking sickly pale and far smaller than his 5'7" as she turned him to face her.

"Screwed. Now help me," she commanded, forcing herself to be firm. Bonnie let him go so he could resume control of his body, seeing him tremble as he made his way toward her, fearful, scared of what she might do if he didn't comply.

"Did he come with someone?" She grunted, gritting her teeth once they started dragging him for the bathroom. "A girlfriend? Boyfriend? A mother?"

"No, no… he was… I don't know."

"Think," Bonnie hissed, pushing the corpse from the back while the manager pulled. She wheezed as they hauled him into the bath, her arms feeling like deadweights.

"He… he was alone," the manager began after some genuine though, exhaling as he lowered himself onto the toilet to catch his breath and soothe his aching aging back. Bonnie did the same.

"You're sure?" she persisted, not wanting to be rid of the body when she knew there might be someone out there looking for him – for his car.

"Yes," Gris answered after a lengthy consideration.

Bonnie stared down at the body without relief, inhaling softly, considering a eulogy of sorts. What could she say, though? 'Sorry for getting you killed, I wish I hadn't been so stupid?' She leaned over the tub, turned on the water and waited for it to fill up just enough to line his body and to make casting the next spell all the easier.

"I suggest you don't scream," she instructed, readying to say the necessary words. "Phasmatos… incendia." Within an instant, the body went up in flames, swallowed whole by the uncompromising magic just like her clothes, keys and money, driving a piercing scream to the air, the manager's body crumbling to the floor in an unconscious heap.

She collected her bag, dropping it onto the mattress, scanning her grimoire for reference after reference of compulsion, seeking herbalist ways in which to erase the man's memory. It wasn't easy, but there were different variants, of which she was only capable of doing two. He wasn't out long.

"Drink this," she said once she found him sitting up in the bathroom, extending him water in a plastic glass meant to hold one's toothpaste and toothbrush. He hesitated, sniffing at the contents, and then dropped it.

"What the hell," Bonnie hissed in surprise, taking a step back. "I wasn't trying to poison you."

"Get the hell away from me!"

"Ah!" she gasped as the man lunged at her, driving her back a step, ramming her into the sink, her elbow hitting the towels railing with a crippling pain that shot up her arm. His fist connected with her stomach hard. She doubled over, fighting for breath, pain radiating from the center of her chest like a searing beacon. "No!" she strangled out as he dashed past her and headed for the door a second time. Then he was out.

Bonnie pushed off the floor, trying to ignore the pain in her abdomen as she ran after him. What if he alerted the woman in C16? Bonnie saw him run for the office, no doubt hurrying for the phone and 911. She charged after him, already healed and struggling to catch her breath. A vampire blood bonus.

"Stay the hell away from me!" he demanded as soon as she stepped into his office, his hands clutching at the baseball bat he kept behind the counter, the phone awkwardly cradled against his ear. There wasn't time for him to dial.

"Put that down," she said, extending her hands before her, gesturing to both the landline and the makeshift weapon. "Just listen—I'm—"

"Stay back!" he hissed, using the bat to point at her and then swinging, sending his calendar flying off the counter toward her. She winced and dodged it.

"I don't want to hurt you. I'm trying to help!" Bonnie beseeched, seeing his eyes narrow contemptuously. "Please just calm down. I can explain this—I can fix this!"

"Not today, girly," he spat, peering down at his phone, his stubby fingers poking at the numbers with clumsy angry haste.

Bonnie uttered a word and watched as it flew out of his hands, ripping from the wall.

"What the—" Another motion of her hand and the bat wrenched free of his grip, too. He didn't even stop to linger, taking a wide step back as soon as he saw it appear in her hand, slamming his office door behind him.

"Fuck," she cursed, trying the door's handle, hoping to God he wouldn't have a shotgun or something similarly scary on the other side. "Motus," she muttered, knocking the door handle off, simultaneously pushing the door open. How the hell, he wasn't there. She approached the wide window to the left, one that faced the back of the office and the nearby forest. Unfortunately, it had gotten much darker outside, making it impossible to see what and where he was running – and if he was running at all. That was it. She couldn't do this alone!

She felt a cold sweat break out across her skin, panic setting in as she turned back, dropped the bat, and made to run for the double doors, steering clear of the motel windows as she charged across the parking lot for the room she shared with Kai.

She barrelled through the door, mindful of alerting anyone else of their troubles, hoping that the rest of the motel patrons were either having an early night, or out of the way.

"Get up!" Bonnie demanded, unable to contain her concern as she headed for the bed to haul Kai up. "I lost him—I lost that guy! He's running around here somewhere. You need to sniff him out and fix this!"


	19. Chapter 19

_**A/N a.k.a Bonnie's foreword:** **JustStockton** (Not a problem! We're happy that you're enjoying the bounce between MF/The-roadtrip-from-hell. I'm also pleased that I was able to clear things for you in relation to Kai. As a character he has a long way to go and a lot of demons that need to be shed. As for the gang, if they survive this, I feel sorry for the therapist they'd go to with everything they've been through. That guy/woman would probably need to be locked away in an asylum. Haha.), **Le1a Naberr1e** (Well, you know that saying 'when it rains, it pours'? This is one of those moments – weeks, months, days actually, but hopefully it won't be her lifetime. We're thrilled that you loved it.), **itscalledkarma** (Bonnie's world is spiraling like crazy and Kai, well, at this point all he needs is a deep-tissue massage and a face mask and he'd be set. Lol.), **pennytree** (We happen to be fans of Quentin Tarantino so that's a commendation that made our day. Thank you! Dealing with Daroline and their ugly association is something I feel needs to be addressed, it's important and a huge part of our resident blondie bears narrative. As for your bride parallels, it's taking off and running wild. I like it. I am so glad we're giving you so much to think about! Now onto the ranting aspect of your humbling review. Is there really a limit on paying someone back for trying to kill you? He is a sociopath and did harbor revenge for over eighteen years. He hasn't had a chance to settle, to let go of those issues or even tackle them at all. How can he when absolutely everything is new to him? He is like a fish out of water. In my opinion, I think Bonnie got off lightly. Kai gave her two opportunities to get out of that prison world with him and both times she screwed him over. He wasn't taking chances with the fourth. He'd learnt his lesson. This is an extension of that. As much as Bonnie needs or wants his trust and cooperation, Kai gave that to her in the past and she spat in his face multiple times. Now she calling a truce—again—and has to earn it back, to prove herself to him in a way and he won't be making it easy on her. As for your frustrations, I fully agree with you. I hate seeing Bon-bon struggle too and only want the best for her, but unfortunately, that's not where her life is yet. Again, we're delighted you're enjoying our emotional rollercoaster as much as we are!), **falconrukichi** (Can't help you with that one. We're not prone to giving away spoilers, but you'll have your answers soon!), **Melika** (Kai is putting that pressure on Bonnie, I don't think he cares to feel it. Haha. And yeah, he is being an annoying little shit. ;)), **jordanjanellejoy** (It's been a hard forty-eight hours for Bonnie. I certainly wouldn't want to be in her shoes!)_

 _Can I not stop with the wordiness? Apparently not! Also and before we get back to the action, we just wanted you to know that we're loving the communication, we're loving hearing your opinions on things and how it's progressing. It's wonderful! So once again, thank you all for reviewing, it's much appreciated._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 19**

After a couple of sitcoms, Kai stumbled upon _I Know What You Did Last Summer_ and settled on it, still having an ear cocked to Bonnie's whereabouts and activities. Those proved to be rather amusing – almost more so than the movie. She appeared to have her hands full in that dead guy's room where she got rid of the body and futilely tried to pacify the motel manager. The manager wasn't the bravest man in town, or strongest, but for a scared, desperate and tired witch like Bonnie he became a tough nut to crack. Kai felt a few pangs of sympathy – meek ones, too – but her troubles only played in his favor, one way or another. They also fueled his amusement.

Bonnie was at it for two hours, give or take. The movie had ended and Kai found a _Hitcher_ rerun on another channel. Hardly a full ten minutes from the beginning. In the dark of the room with just the screen shining, Kai was rather cozy.

Rutger Hauer was about to force a scared-shitless and weeping C. Thomas Howell to utter 'I want to die' when Bonnie stormed into the room.

"Get up!" she commanded, cutting to the bed in three wide, hurrying steps and gripping Kai's arm to tug him to his feet. "I lost him—I lost that guy! He's running around here somewhere. You need to sniff him out and fix this!"

"I don't need to do squat, I told you he was your tail." Not moving from his comfortable pose despite her pulling, Kai took his eyes off the screen reluctantly to give her a quick once-over, and snickered. "Gee, I'm impressed you haven't lost your boxers yet. Have you glued them to your butt with magic? Or are they stuck because he'd used them before? Ow, that's nasty. You might wanna shower real soon and thoroughly."

She kept a hold of him, unwilling to let go, ignoring the amused way in which he looked at her. She couldn't afford for that guy to make it to the cops or to alert anyone else of what he'd seen her do.

"Would you quit the jokes and focus for one God damned minute?" she hissed, automatically dropping a hand to the boxers, glad her manipulation of the elastic appeared to secure it in place for now. She didn't want to worry about making any more of a splash than was necessary. "I'm not the only one that'll be in trouble if this thing goes south," she implored, hoping he'd see reason, all too aware that longer she sat here trying to get him to cooperate, the more time they were wasting.

What if Gris circled back to the office, or worse – decided to run for town instead?

When Kai made no reply, still half distracted by the movie, she let go of his arm, which drew his eyes to her.

Giving him an inkling of space, she tried another less forceful approach. "You think the world's ready to hear things like 'A girl miraculously incinerates a body in a bathtub'? Is that something you want to see plastered on tomorrow's headlines? You didn't see that guy, he was scared shitless. And not only is he going to go to the cops, but he is going to tell the next person he stumbles upon." She hated how helpless she felt and how little she could do to rectify this situation without Kai. There was the possibility of a locator spell, but that would take time—finding something she could use—and concentration she didn't have right now.

Kai gave a brisk shake of his head as if relying that she was making a hassle out of nothing, and turned back to the TV.

"Please," she added after a second's continued and internal deliberation, despising how desperate that word sounded. "Just help me sweep this under the rug and we'll… we'll talk feeding, new terms, whatever."

Frankly, feeding was all the terms Kai wanted her to willingly accept. But he scoffed in return, folding his arms, and peered at her, smiling mockingly. "I don't care for the headlines, nor this guy, or whatever it is that will go south as you say – none of it will touch me. Nor, maybe, you, for that matter. So what he'll find cops? Who'd believe him? There's no body, and if you burn the clothes you're wearing, you'll probably dodge the chance to become the CSI show's subject."

"You expect me to accept a maybe and someone thinking him insane? You really are new to this whole vampire thing, aren't you? I wonder, how did you plan on getting away with murdering your family? I mean, if none of them survived and you'd managed to succeed in killing all of them. Or didn't you think that far?" She didn't even know why she thought to bring that up or why she hoped it stung. His indifference and nonchalance to everything was exasperating her.

"Why should I?" he asked again, watching C. Thomas Howell discover the slaughtered family inside the car he'd seen drive past him earlier and puke on the curb, then turned to give her a patient look people reserve for slow ones. "I don't foresee any big trouble for myself if the police look for me. Besides, when they threw me in the prison world, dad made sure to erase all the traces of my existence from this reality. And after a while, they announced me as good as dead and put a tombstone with my name on it next to our deceased kin. Whoever murdered my family – it wasn't the long gone son and brother who went missing eighteen years ago and had never been heard of ever since."

"And now you're suddenly expunged from culpability?" Did he even know of compulsion? Bonnie couldn't recall seeing him use it. Had Damon? Was Kai even aware that he could do it? From what she could remember, Kai didn't know much about vampires and hadn't dealt with them too much. Not since she abandoned him in nineteen-o-three, anyway. "That's not the way life works. Your face will be remembered, and the next thing you know—sketches or images of a dark-skinned girl and her similarly chill associate will be plastered everywhere. Besides, this guy has clearly been living here all his life, what makes you think they wouldn't read into it and show up outside our door? I go, you go. That's just the way it is and it's more of a superficial infliction than that of a natural progression. We're linked."

Kai tore his eyes off the TV and peered at her suspiciously.

"Now, unless you want to spend the next fifty years in some state correctional facility for manslaughter or… attempted murder, I suggest you get yourself up and out. There might still be time to catch up to him."

Kai shook his head with a brisk laugh.

Bonnie tensed as he laughed, irritated that everything she said seemed to bounce off of him as though he were made of rubber. Did he not have a single empathic bone in his body? Was he really _that_ unfeeling?

"You don't seem to get how my life works right now. I'm a hybrid, Bonsy. I can do whatever I want. There will be no facility that can hold me. If there are cops at my door – I'll kill them and anyone else who gives me trouble. As for your manager buddy: he saw you, and of me he only got a glimpse he might as well have thought of as a glitch of his imagination. If anyone's gonna be plastered everywhere – it's the tanned girl with no associates." He composed a mock I'm-so-sorry-honey look and turned back to the screen where Rutger Hauer appeared once more to haunt the poor lad Howell out of his sanity.

Bonnie wanted to pull him down a peg or twelve—make him realize exactly how invincible he wasn't. But dealing with someone without any more to lose, well, she guessed she had her work cut out for her. Was he seriously so supped up on the benefits that he'd forgotten that the very people who had chewed on him for the last two weeks had been stuck in their prison world for over eighty years? Or more? Bonnie wasn't even too sure on their history. Either way, containing him wasn't impossible.

"So that's you answer then?" she asked. "Anyone who comes to that door asking question dies? Well, that's not really productive, is it? Unless you're looking to make a splash as a serial killer?"

Now it was her turn to laugh. And she did, heartily, hysterically and wearily.

She laughed with a hysterical, morbid merriment that excited the tiny nerves along his spine and touched his lips with the smallest of smiles as Kai stared at her. Bonnie suddenly was fun, more intriguing than the classic thriller.

"For someone who despises Damon, you sure as hell sound a lot like him," she stated.

With a poke of displeasure, Kai noted it wasn't a farfetched observation.

Bonnie snatched the remote from him and flung it against the wall. Astonished, not without a thin trace of pleasure, he watched it burst and fall down in a rain of plastic and batteries. A sneaky sneer flicked on Bonnie's face upon the deed.

"Sad, really. I was almost convinced you were entirely more than some mindless murderer. That maybe," she eased onto her knees beside him, inching closer with the teasing pretense of getting a better look, "you actually have the capacity to feel something."

Her face was too close now, her breath hot and ticklish on his mouth, and her scent all up in his nostrils, quickly stirring his calm, making him want her blood and body and all she could give.

Not that Bonnie expected such a trivial sentiment from a sociopath. She did enough crosswords and otherwise to know that she was barking up the wrong tree. That even as a human he was pretty much vampire. Still, for some reason and the more he rebuffed her, the more compelled she was to stir something aside from humorous indifference, and before she knew it—before she even grasped how far she was prepared to go—her lips were firmly pressed to his.

It was a daring, confident kiss that wasn't like her, wasn't what Kai wanted from her – not yet, anyway. It shocked him into submission for a second or two, and that second or two was enough for his pulse to spike and his jeans to feel a bit tighter. And then, Kai reciprocated, brought a hand to cup her cheek, caressed it down to her shoulder, and in an inhumanly swift move pressed her into the bed beneath him. Ire wiggled into his gut. She was trying to manipulate him, testing for weak spots. And not with violence he knew how to handle, but with a way every good-looking woman knew no man could resist. That made his ire swell.

Bonnie let herself be lost in the taste of his lips, using the transitory sensation as a break from reality and a way of washing away her increasing frustrations. It didn't matter that it was Kai – the very reason for said craziness. All she knew was that she craved something varied and that she wanted an immediate gratuitous reminder that things weren't as hopeless and ugly as they seemed. Influence that broke as his hand grazed her shoulder and flipped her onto her back. She blinked up at him, minutely confused as he hovered over her.

Regarding her amazed face and eyes flickering in the changing light of the TV screen, Kai covered his anger behind a simper. "I wouldn't recommend teasing me unless you're ready to go all the way, Banzai."

His words highlighted the threat, creating a knot of anticipation in the pit of her stomach. Bonnie stayed quiet, trying to battle her cagy considerations, shivering in wake of his warm lips upon her throat and his hand upon her waist, flushing at the provided implication. She should have known better than to tempt this impulse.

He brushed his lips along the side of her neck, tempting himself with the rush of her blood in the pulsating vein, and snapped the elastic waistband of her boxers against her skin before pulling away with a mocking grin. "Whenever you're not wearing a deadman's underpants."

It crushed any concerns she might have been having and the reasonable 'no' she was formulating. Bonnie wasn't the type to bang her nemesis in a seedy motel on a whim or for the sake of having one last hurrah. That was… She didn't even know who to compare that to or who of her friends would ever stoop that low.

He extended a hand, muttering a spell, and closed his fingers on the repaired remote, waving it at Bonnie. "That was rude. It's the motel's property, your buddy manager would shit a brick if he saw you do it. It was hot, though, I give you that. You should do it more often, you know. Let your emotions fly free. It's empowering, isn't it?"

She licked her dry lips, watching as the fixed remote reappeared in his hand, and frowned with a touch of displeasure. He was _retracting_ everything she did. She raised a hand to his chest, using the other to sweep the remote from his hand a second time, the force she used sounding like that of a gun as it rebounded off the wall and broke.

"Guess it's a good thing my buddy isn't around to bitch at me. Which reminds me," she said, pushing at his chest, nudging him off her so that she could sit up. "I'd better go get my bag, make sure our neighbour doesn't snitch on me and pray Gris has fallen into a ditch somewhere."

"He didn't," Kai said, repeating the spell and once again collecting the repaired remote laying back against the head of the bed to resume with the movie. "He's probably trotting along the curb of the highway, waiting for the first car to pick him up and bring him to the town and the sheriff's office. It's not too lively on the road now, but not dead, either. Fifty-fifty that he's caught a lift already." He gave her a teasing smile and returned his eyes to the TV. "You better pray real hard."

She wondered how he knew that or if he was wagering a guess, trying to intentionally spook her. She narrowed her eyes contemptuously, irritated by his sustained dismissal, and fixed a glaring look on the TV. It didn't last long under her scrutiny, exploding outward while thick black smoke billowed out of the back.

Kai threw a hand before him, shielding himself with an energetic field from the debris, and glared at the witch.

"Enjoy your movie." She turned to head for the door, hauling the TV off its stand with a waving motion, a slow smile spreading onto her lips as it dropped to the floor between the foot of the bed and the assumed desk. Kai was right. There was some part of letting go, of not giving a damn about certain things, that was empowering, and that moment had been one of them – however minor.

"Naughty bitch!" he called after her with mock infuriation. Her footfalls headed away towards the parking lot. He coughed, observing the dead TV, and smiled slowly. She was doing really well. A moment and a few words later, Kai stretched with an arm behind his head and the long-suffering remote on the bed by his side, watching the cops chase the poor bastard Howell around to pin the murders on him.

* * *

Bonnie peered around the sparsely occupied parking lot, relieved to see all the doors were closed and that no one was making use of the pool. How long had she been with Kai? How much of a head start had she given the manager? Fifteen minutes? Ten? She had lost track of time.

She used the cars to shield her as if she were some common criminal running from the law, which, if left up to Kai, she would be. She avoided the office entirely, wondering, as she slipped into the dead guy's room on the other side of the large C shaped lot, if there was CCTV? This place might not look like much, but it certainly had people coming in and out at all hours of the day and night. An established business like that had to have some form of stable security, right?

She wrinkled her nose, imagining the stench of death in the air and felt her stomach knot. She never wanted to see this place again. Bonnie walked into the bathroom and hauled the sheet from inside the tub, stuffing it onto the top of her open bag to get rid of later. There was blood on it. She stood, giving the room a once-over, pausing when she noticed the guy's wallet on the bedside table. She picked it up, pausing mid-way as guilt crept into her bones.

 _That's not what I'm here for. Just because he's dead doesn't mean I have the right to steal him blind._

She withdrew her hand from the bedside table, curling slender fingertips into her palm, ignoring the way her nails dug into her flesh – a means of punishing herself. Kai had her doing a lot of immoral things tonight, hell, he'd forced her to get rid of one body and was making her hunt the other to keep their secret safe. She didn't have to add robbery to her growing list of offences.

Bonnie walked over to his bag, stuffing the shoes she'd found at the bottom of the bed, along with the stranger's dirtied clothes upon the top of it, pausing to collect his toothbrush from the bathroom before finally shoving his wallet into it, too. They'd get rid of it later. For now, she just wanted to get rid of any and all signs of his existence.

She started out of the bedroom five minutes later, closing and locking the door behind her with a singular utterance of a word, one bag on her back, the other hugged to her chest as she slinked her way back to the their room.

"So," she said, feeling rather annoyed as she stepped inside and found the TV repaired, opting to cut to the chase instead of spending another twenty minutes or more trying to catch up to the manager. "What is it I'm going to have to do to get you to help me? What do you want?"

"That's a stupid question," Kai chided and turned to give her a mocking sneer. "Even a kid would answer that for you. The real question here is what do YOU want. If you're just running from Mystic Falls, having me with you doesn't fit the image of the Bonnie your friends hold on to. If you wanted to 'release me back into the wild' – you had plenty of chances. If you wanted to get rid of me with no witnesses – well, plenty of chances for that, too. Something tells me you don't really know what you wanna do, yet, and that might become a problem. It actually has already started to turn into problems around you – simply because of the fact that you haven't bothered to come up with a solid idea of what you're doing and why."

She inhaled, folding her arms across her chest. "Is now really the time to be giving me a lecture on what I want from life? I've told you, I'm trying to help you, and letting you go so you can kill someone else isn't an option. I'm not a particular fan of that, if you hadn't noticed." Although now—and in light of what had happened—it was a waste to even use that as some kind of an excuse.

Kai had to chuckle, especially when it dawned on her that it was something they could put a check mark on.

"As for my friends, their expectation is no longer my worry. What is my concern is YOU, your teeth and those six other supped up magic freaks with mother Salvatore at the helm of their crazy. Do I have a plan? Have I thought this through? No, and no. Should I have a plan? Yes. Do I have the time? No. Because, let's face it, and I've said this multiple times already: you're not supposed to be here. You're supposed to be in nineteen-o-three rotting away, just—just being or whatever. Jo is supposed to be on her honeymoon, and me, I'm supposed to be free of witch servitude. I'm supposed to be getting a degree of some kind, hating homework, dating college boys and trying to figure out what I want to do with my life! Instead I'm here… with you, chasing some frightened kickboxer, feeling guilty as shit, not only for costing some poor undeserving soul his LIFE, but for EVERYONE!"

She wanted to throw something she was that worked up, wanted to destroy the TV all over again or punch something—someone, the same way the manager had punched her.

"I know you only underwent that feeling for, what was it, two weeks? A month? Days? So it must be hard for you to identify with, but being overwhelmed or imprisoned isn't going to get me any closer to a workable answer." She crouched down beside her bag and grumpily removed the confiscated sheet, wedging it against the other bag to clear up the space needed to pull free her grandmothers grimoire.

"You need to sort out your answers, Bonbon," Kai said, observing the Howell lad and his blonde girl try to outrace the police.

What was the rush? Why did she have to have all the answers now? Or was this about Kai? What he needed and expected from their arrangement and why he chose to stick around?

"But fine," he added. "I can help you track this manager down in return for my meal. Our blood pact's back on." He flashed her a jolly smile, swinging his legs off the bed, and extended a hand. "Accept?"

She eyed him distrustfully. All this refusal and suddenly he caved? She couldn't help but wonder why or if he just took a particular pleasure in making her crazy. She assumed it was the latter – that, like Damon, he liked playing with his victims. Not that she was his victim, she wouldn't be – not again. And not this time. Bonnie pushed off her haunches and turned to face him, taking a hold of his hand like an associate putting the last touch on a business arrangement.

"Deal," she muttered, hating herself for feeling relieved. She kept a hold of his hand once the deal was re-established and made her way outside, tugging him behind her slowly. "So," she said after giving him a couple of seconds to hone his newfound senses, trusting that their brief interaction before was enough for Kai to pick up on the manager's distinctive scent. "Where are we headed?"

Kai gave an ironic hem. "You can take your car and follow the highway to the town while I take advantage of my speed. If you wanna find him, I must go alone – you'll slow me down."

How was she going to catch up to him when Kai was capable of covering miles within only a few short seconds?

"Fine," she said with a sweeping gesture. She wasn't going to argue his logic. "Go. I'll catch up."

She observed Kai as he headed off toward the office and made her own way toward Zach's borrowed car. She stopped on the passenger side, pleased to find it unlocked. In all her former haste, there hadn't been time to do otherwise. She reached for the ignition to grope for the keys. They were still there, dangling like a metaphorical alleviation to her stress. She'd left them there after her talk with lady C and before her body burning. She waited two minutes when he disappeared inside, keeping an eye on the lot and then slid inside the car, casting a final glance at the office to see where he was and if he were headed into the forest.

She grabbed a hold of the keys and prepared to turn on the engine, feeling the air briefly leave her lungs and her heart skip a beat when all of a sudden her door flew open and she was pulled from inside and thrust against the side of the car. There wasn't time to scream.

* * *

Kai trotted to the office. It looked like the aftermath of a breaking and entering. A baseball bat lying on the floor among some papers probably spilt from the old desk, and a telephone ripped off the wall. He looked around and found what he needed: the manager's jacket hung neatly on the chair's back at the desk. He inhaled, locking on the scent and energy, and took a few seconds to enable his magical sensors. He tossed the jacket on the desk and dashed out the office. Barely a few yards from it, something yanked him hard on the solar plexus as though there was a cord going out of there, made of his live guts. The yank knocked the air out of him as he doubled over with a wheezing gasp.

"Dammit," he muttered and backtracked, appearing at the open driver's door of Bonnie's car. He pulled her out of by the shoulder when she was about to key the ignition.

She started and gave a squeal, then saw it was him, and fright flipped into anger.

"You wound me, Bonnie, with your lack of trust. That leash is humiliating." He lifted her into his arms and sprinted, following the trail.

What was he talking about? What leash? Before Bonnie could think to question him on it, to remember the link she'd cast hours earlier, he'd lifted her into his arms and taken off. All that was left for her to do was hold on. And she did.

It was still hot, and in a few minutes of circling in a head-spinning speed, mimicking the frightened manager's path, they found themselves where Kai predicted the manager would be: on the curb of the road, barely trotting now. He was limping and seemed quite exhausted. There was about half a mile left to the town he was eager to reach. Kai put Bonnie down and held a hand out. The manager froze in his tracks and turned in a slow robotic movement like some product on a spinning showcase.

"Oh no no no," he was muttering as I pulled him to us. His face was morbidly pallid, his eyes wide as saucers, rolling in their sockets as he looked between us. His face was working into a crying grimace. "What… what are you, people?" he uttered, his mouth creasing as the first tears welled.

Bonnie flushed, her stomach roiling in response to the ghastly fear written all over his face. She knew that feeling, had experienced it many times in the past and even now.

"I'm solving problems," Kai told him with the most charming friendly smile he could compose, and turned to Bonnie. "See, here's your problem."

Kai flicked his wrist, something cracked like dead leaves, and the manager's complaining moans stopped abruptly as he went down like a heap of dirty laundry. Life seeping from his eyes before Bonnie could even register what happened. For a minute, the world seemed to evaporate before her eyes and only the three of them existed.

"And here's no problem," Kai announced cheerfully, the nerves along his spine shimmering with anticipation of her frenzy. "You're welcome. Can we go back now? I'm kinda hungry."

"What is wrong with you?!" Bonnie cried, feeling her anger return at full force and exorcize itself like a raging storm that sent Kai flying as though caught in a tornado. "I wasn't looking to harm him!" Not any more than she already had. She jabbed an accusing hand within Kai's direction, his right leg twisting and breaking before he even fully touched down on the ground.

Kai cried out, and fought the urge to retaliate, or defend himself. This was it! She was doing it. She was slipping down the slope. It began. He felt a futile smile tug at the corners of his mouth, distorted by a grimace of pain.

Bonnie shook. The last time she lost control like this—the last time she felt this hollowed out and her power begged to be released, had been when she saw him, freshly upon her return. "I wanted you to compel him!"

She was so fixed on making her point and expelling her hurt that she hadn't even seen or heard a car pull up and someone rush toward the fallen man near the side of the road. Not until it was too late.

Kai braced himself for another bout of misery, but instead her magic loosened and dropped him beside the manager. An ache shot through his knees and legs as he landed on the asphalt. _And that's it?!_

"Call the hospital, Gloria," a man commanded, crouching beside the dead manager, and spared Kai a worried glance. "Are you all righ—"

"Somnus," Kai said. The man slumped on the body. Kai stood up, setting his neck and shoulders straight, joints clicking. "Naughty witch," he winked at her and repeated the spell. The woman went down, her phone breaking in two as it hit the road – its battery scattered under the hood of their car. Kai clicked his tongue. "Bonnie, Bonnie. Again – your lack of trust wounds me, and when something does, it's never good for those around."

Bonnie wasn't expecting much from him in the moral department. However, she hated letting him push her every button. She knew that's what he wanted - it's what they all wanted. Damon, Silas, Shane. They all pushed her at some point in her life or at least they had tried to, some more successfully than others. As for Kai, he read her like a book from day one, toying with her head from the moment they laid eyes on him, to the minute he left her to rot in that forsaken prison world. He consumed her every thought. Be it good, bad or mundane.

Kai studied her with well-hidden but growing frustration. How could she keep swallowing every punch he dealt? Was she so broken and done all that power in her couldn't burst itself out to make a stand? A spark here and there, like a short-circuit reflex in a busted TV set, was all he received thus far. Perhaps, after all the years she had spent with her toxic friends, she had suppressed and stomped her true might so deep into the ground it wasn't able to make it out, anymore. The idea was infuriating. He could have been trying to light a flawed match to oppose his wildfire.

 _Maybe it's time I cut this rotten limb off. Just drop it and go. I was obsessed with a mere illusion. Away from her, I might make myself believe it._

He winced at the thought like at a nerve pinch in a sore tooth, yanked the newly arrived unconscious man off the manager and lifted the latter by the collar of his shirt like a dead weasel. "He's out cold. Spine-snap was a joke. You could use some sense of humor." Kai let him drop and folded his arms with a sardonic sneer.

Bonnie stared at him as he picked up the manager and brandishing him like a puppet, and tried to anticipate his next move. Watching that sarcastic sneer spread onto his lips, she was convinced that it wouldn't be changing anytime soon. "On the contrary, I find many things funny and happen to be a big fan of comedies. Your stage show could use work, perhaps something that doesn't relate to murder or death." Kai shrugged dismissively, put his hands in his pockets.

She walked toward them and bent over to pick up the woman's phone, slipping the battery back into place, smiling as the light turned on, grateful the screen hadn't cracked. She could call Caroline.

"So, how does this fit into your joke?" she asked, dismissing the thought for now to focus on the three bodies at their feet. "Or is this the punchline?"

"What? The multiplying bodies paving your path? It looks like the joke itself. The punchline might be the handcuffs on your wrists when you get accused of committing MY crimes."

Bonnie clutched the phone, no longer possessing place to tuck it as her boxers had no pockets and she was devoid of a bra. She walked over to the car and set the phone down on the hood, scanning the road as he spoke, making sure there weren't any other complications headed their way.

Kai rocked on the balls of his feet slightly, observing her and reflecting on what if the match wasn't as much flawed as his way of lighting it had been. "Don't forget, I'm a vampire now, so murder and death pretty much lace the air around me. As for you, maybe there's a lesson for you there in all of what happened. Perhaps the universe tries to tell you your methods don't work that well." He shrugged as if to say who-am-I-to-tell-you-this.

"What methods are you talking about? My means of escape? My attempts to save myself? You're going to have to clarify, Kai. As you know, I've a pretty big list of fuck-ups." She crouched beside the woman, brushed her hair from her face and winced upon seeing how hard she'd hit her head on the concrete. That was going to bruise in the morning. Bonnie moved to drag the woman to their car, huffing as she did. She didn't bother asking Kai for his help this time—he'd do so if he wanted—and wasn't prepared for another of his morbid jokes.

"Well, if you insist. There's a recent fuck-up we can crown a major one for today: you refused me your blood. And here we are," he spread his arms briefly, "in the middle of nowhere instead of cozily tucked back in our bed watching thrillers before sleep." He raised a hand and lifted the Gloria woman from the ground and Bonnie's arms and manipulated her into the passenger's seat. Then repeated it dexterously with her presumed husband, settling him behind the wheel. "You better step away," he instructed Bonnie, who, despite glaring at him suspiciously and with a mute no-more-shit command plastered over her face, obeyed, taking the woman's cell off the hood first.

The car rolled back a few yards, its engine starting, then rushed forward towards Bonnie and Kai, swerving off the curb in the last moment to hit the nearest tree. Bonnie gasped. The engine died, smoke coiled from the crumpled hood. One of the passengers groaned against their air bag.

Bonnie brushed aside the inherent distress, her stomach knotting unpleasantly as Kai turned to her and smiled.

"So, I guess my work's done here. I helped, everybody lives, happy days. Now, don't be long. It's dark and those woods around…" He sucked in air noisily, making an exaggerated tsk. "Not a good combo for a girl that pretty and dressed like you." He grinned wider, waggling his fingers a wave, "See ya."

She opened her mouth to tell him he had to be kidding, that he couldn't seriously be thinking of leaving her out here – but he was gone. A cold breeze caressed her face in his wake. She stared after him in snappish amazement, trying to remember which way they had dashed in their haste. Her eyes had been closed to shield them against the cold of night and flying dirt. And then she cast a look around, half-expecting him to reappear.

He didn't.


	20. Chapter 20

_**A/N a.k.a Bonnie's foreword:** **jordanjanellejoy** (Also the media attention revolving around a pyromaniac girl on the run. Yeah, the poor baby would have some real problems!), **itscalledkarma** (Yes, Kai is totally hot. I say that of course in an unbiased and I hate him kind of way. *fist shakes* And what's not to be attracted to hmm? Dudes got some good taste! ;)), **Melika** (Bonnie isn't utterly defenceless. Unless she happens upon another stray vampire/supernatural creature, in which case… Kai's a real BIG jerk!), **mellimon** (No worries about the mistakes, we got your message loud and clear. Kai doesn't want her to be submissive—as far as I know, and if he does… he's got another thing coming, FOR now… she is simply trying to make right her screw ups, to call a sort of truce and survive the next week.), **JustStockton** (Well good, I'm glad I was able to give you a glimpse of that girl! She has her moments and means of showing face and kicking ass. And yeah, Kai is real helpful in his own 'I fucked this up' way. He's like a reverse Mister Miyagi.)_

 _After all your requests for an update. It's finally here! Thank you so much for taking the time to review!_

* * *

 **CHAPTER 20**

Bonnie cringed as a groan tore from inside the damaged car, listening to one of the two struggle to open their car door. She wanted to help them, to make things easier and check on the manager. But how could she safely do that without putting herself in the line of fire again? She backtracked guiltily, walking away from town, sticking close to the side of the road, forcing herself to put some distance between the wreck and her. While she walked she preoccupied herself with the phone she'd stolen, checking to make sure that it turned on. It did. And it didn't require a pin either.

She stared at the screen with the desire to call Caroline, to assure her everything was all right, to let her know that Bonnie had fallen asleep, an excuse she premeditated but didn't have the energy to relay as she sluggishly strolled along the black highway. Bonnie should fear what was out there, what she _knew_ could jump out at her in the middle of the night, and truth be told – she was. She eyed the road for cars, ducking for cover as they came along, not wanting to be picked up by some stranger or to pull any more people than was necessary into the drama surrounding her out of control life.

She had only had to do it once, and by the second time, her heart leapt into her throat as the passing car made a U-turn and headed back for her. Bonnie was shaking, an onset of the cold night air and a medium of fear.

"You coming?" a familiar voice asked, eradicating her terror and making her angry all over again. "Or you like the idea of being stranded on the highway with a loony manager?"

Bonnie considered telling him to go to hell and to shove it where the sun didn't shine, but considering how literal Kai was, how quick to seemingly take her for her word, she wasn't going to risk it – not again.

Kai watched her in the side mirror. For a moment there, she looked like she was about to tell him to go fuck himself. Then she ran toward the car and quickly climbed into the passenger side, setting the phone down on the dashboard to toy with the car's heat. She didn't say thank you, didn't yell at him, she merely twisted a few knobs and pulled on her seatbelt, patiently waiting for him to drive them back to the motel.

Kai murmured a spell. The back door clicked and swung open; the still unconscious motel manager flew over the road leisurely to and into the car. The door snapped closed.

"That's not yours," Kai noted, pointing a finger at the cell. It trembled and dashed out the window to reunite with its owner in their steaming car.

"Hey!" Bonnie interjected in outrage, attempting to catch the device mid-flight. She missed. She sprang free of the top of her seatbelt and leaned over him slightly, trying to see where it landed. It was too dark.

Kai pressed on the accelerator, leaving them behind. "Just so you know, _you're_ dealing with this," he jerked a thumb over his shoulder to the manager in the back. "Tying him up before you tackle it might be a bright idea."

She wanted to slap Kai, bruise or possibly break another limb of his. "I thought we established that we'd keep this simple and that you'd compel him. There is no need for ropes or tying him up."

"I thought we established that I would help you locate his ass and bring him back. Compulsion wasn't part of the deal."

She leaned back into the chair, sliding her arm back beneath the black sling, dismissing the notion to rub her palms up and down her bare legs, pushing her iced toes up under the dash to best steal of the heat. She couldn't trust that he wouldn't take off without her again if she went looking for the phone – not when he'd managed to escape her. And how? With the link that shouldn't have been conceivable.

Kai snuck a glance at her, smiling teasingly. "Aw, don't pout. I'm sure a badass witch like yourself is capable of doing some juju to make his brain go blank."

"And why would we go through all that trouble when you're capable of making eye contact and telling him to forget everything he's witnessed? Why do you insist on making this hard on me?" Not that she expected him to make things easy on her, but he was so bipolar with his help that she didn't know what to do or how to react, anymore. All she knew was that she was frustrated.

He only smiled wider, staring at the road ahead as they neared the motel. He could see the blinking sign ahead. Bonnie's frustration added to his good mood, charged it.

"Which brings me to another question," she refused to give up. "How did you run away? How did you break the link? Is everything a game to you?"

He laughed. "It's more than one question. But fine, why don't I throw a bone here. Your magic is slacking with the way your emotions go every which way every time shit happens – shit _you_ make happen, one way or another. You're an absolute failure at keeping your energy focused, Banzai. You need to work on that. Fear of going too far with your magic tenses you, then you try to chain your magic, and that goes whacky. That link spell went whack the second I pulled the spine-snap illusion with your buddy there. You freaked out and – bingo! – I was free. That's sloppy casting, if you ask me."

She knew Kai was pointing out from where he believed the issue came from, yet she couldn't help but feel irritated and a touch offended. Sloppy casting? No. Emotional? Yes. Then again, those two were going hand in hand with her lately. How was it she could do these things for years around her friends, that she could set herself up for death—not once but twice—and somehow Kai was the first to read it so thoroughly?

"And I do indeed like games. You could use some in your life. So uptight! If you treated your life with a bit less strain and seriousness, your thinking would be sharper, Bons."

He pulled up on her car's former spot, and killed the engine. It hadn't taken them too long to get back, Bonnie noted, and surprisingly, the place looked undisturbed still. She was thankful for that. She unbuckled her seatbelt as he half turned toward her, clearly not finished with his lecture.

"Think about it from a different angle. The simple task of making a dude forget stuff you take as a mission impossible and demand I take care of it while it's easy enough for a witch of your level. With that attitude, you and your loved ones are dead meat when the heretics hit the world with their best." Kai gave her a hearty I-just-wanna-help smile and exited the car, heading for their room.

So this was all just some kind of obstinate test to strengthen her casting? Bonnie stared after him, watching as he headed back inside, sparing her not even a single backwards glance. In some way, she was frustrated, in another way—she couldn't recall the last time someone had pushed her to make her stronger for the sake of being strong.

She turned slightly—same way Kai had—and peered into the backseat where the manager was still out cold, throwing a quick glance in direction of the closed motel doors, making sure there wasn't anyone watching them. She pulled the keys out, considered, then shrugged and threw them into the glove compartment. Hardly anyone would steal this sorry car tonight. She shut its door, and temporarily killed the stream of lights that ran along the outside of motel. She wanted to make sure that no one would be able to see her magically guide the man from the car and into their room. And she did, with some difficulty.

Kai had just settled in front of the TV, sprawled on the bed like before, when Bonnie came in with the manager floating on her magic like some weird robot on air bags from the future. Kai barely spared them a glance, busy searching for some new movie to hook up on. There was something familiar on the same channel where he watched _The Hitcher_ , and after a few minutes he recognized _It_ about a freaky clown. The night was good.

Bonnie set the manager down in the bath for now—a duplicate of the one she had used to burn the corpse. She magically pulled a sheet from under Kai lounging on the bed and ripped it into strips, paying no mind to his look as she weaved herself some rope.

She wet the material, and once Gris started stirring, was quick and thorough in tying his arms behind his back, and his legs for extra measure, using his belt around his neck, something she anchored to the bath tap to make sure he wouldn't get any funny ideas. She had seen that in a movie once – a scary movie.

"Has no one ever told you never to shit where you sleep, Bons?" Kai called, eyeing the screen and smiling subtly to himself. However clumsy, she was fun to watch as she worked. "You could've just immobilized him, why the hell did you take our sheet?"

"Because as you've already stated: my casting is sloppy," she responded, flashing Kai a grin over her shoulder, not wanting to focus on too much at once. Besides, why traumatize the man any more than he already was? "I'm not dependent on magic for everything. I do know how to tie a knot. I used to be a girl scout." She made her way out of the bathroom, crouching to retrieve her grimoire and joining him on the bed. She wanted to see what there was on wiping someone's memories.

The biggest question being, would Grams even have written a spell like that? Bonnie didn't think so. But then again, it had been passed down from generation to generation.

"A girl scout, a cheerleader, a witch, a martyr…" Kai smiled, eyeing her profile, suddenly wanting to draw her to him and brush his lips against that cheek. And that neck. "You're a girl of many talents. Makes it more flabbergasting how undervalued you are by your friends."

She drew her gaze from the open pages on her lap, fixing him with a focused look. She saw no mischievousness on his face this time, none of the usual mirth or mocking when it came to talking about her relationship with her friends.

"They've a lot on their minds," she said, choosing—for the first time—not to disregard his comment and the tentative compliment. She didn't get those very often. "It's been a busy few years for all of us. Elena and her Klaus issues, Caroline and her Klaus issues. I don't blame them for being preoccupied." How could she? "Don't suppose it matters now anyway. Elena's is out of the picture and I—well, I'm trying to find my footing. An anchor, really—" She left it at that as she turned to the pages, scanning them for information, moving to the next one when she didn't see or read anything that pertained to her current problem.

Kai let out a tired sigh. "There it is again. Don't you notice? Every single time you have that need to justify things they shouldn't have done as your friends."

Bonnie had lowered her expectations in a lot of things, especially in relation to her friends and where she stood. She didn't say that, though, didn't voice aloud the facts that would reopen that jagged scar.

"Weren't _you_ preoccupied? Had you not a worry in the world while they had plenty? Were you lounging on a sunbed in Hawaii while they were battling Klaus and his minions? What right did they have to disregard _you_ in favor of their troubles when it was mostly you who'd been solving those on your life's expense? You died for them how many times, now? Three? I lose count. And what was the most significant thing any one or all of them ever did for _you_? For _your_ sake? For _your_ safety? Not because they needed you alive to perform a ritual or spit out a spell, but because they were afraid to live in a world without you?"

She stared at Kai in deep thought, unable to grant him an answer to any of his questions, feeling herself sway between irascibility and something like wretchedness. How was it that he was able to rip into her insecurities so effortlessly? How was it that after two years and being her assumed enemy he was one of the first people to recognize how alone she was? And how much was constantly pushed onto her shoulders? Caroline recognized her loss, saw what happened to her family—to her—where others didn't, yet she had been unable to do anything, unable to keep Bonnie from screwing up. What other choice was there though? Caroline was stubborn and she had boyfriend troubles of epic proportions. Bonnie couldn't hold it against her.

"How is it you know so much about this?" she asked him. "About me? About my friends? About our past issues?" She rested a hand upon the open book, keeping a hold of it as if it were a security blanket of sorts. She had never spoken to Damon about these things back in the prison world and never voiced her insecurities aloud.

Kai smiled a little. "I watch and learn. After months of watching you two, I knew your every expression, every tone you used in your voice to deliver one mood or another, every gesture, every look. Funny how no one would tell you were friends by the way you communicated. More like, you seemed to have had a secret crush on him and thus forgave every despicable thing of the dozens he dealt you every single day. Sure, you snapped every now and then and left to steam alone for a bit, but then you came back, and it was all over on repeat. It amazed me how he, being the sorry-ass loser of a vampire, made you believe there was no one below your level of failure. He took his moods out on you, shaming and mocking, while expecting to ride out of his trap on _your_ back. And you let him!"

Bonnie would admit that there was an instance were things were getting cozier, far easier than she had ever imagined or felt it would be when she realized they were stuck in some abandoned hell together. That when trouble arose, Damon was the first person she sought to go to talk about it and hopefully figure things out. And yet, all of that died when he deliberately walked away from her and left her to choke on her own blood. It was logical to be mad at Kai, that because of the life link and him hurting her in the first place, she'd hate him or perhaps want to see him dead. But in some way and in the middle of all this chaos, it almost felt like Kai was trying to help her, that he was pushing her to be better and giving her the leeway to do so.

It sounded silly even thinking about it.

"The rest of your friends wasn't a particularly complicated deduction, either – you gave me some scenes to listen to from the basement, and I didn't need to see it to know what face you made or how you felt. You're not a professional spy, nor a swindler used to keep utter and constant control over their body and face. Your body language is an open book for those who'd bother to learn it."

That observation gave merit to what he had admitted to her in the barn. Bonnie didn't believe him capable of love. She didn't think Kai was prepared for it – not after everything he'd undergone, but he was steadily crafting a believable story of support, action that seemed to contradict his revenge plot and made her question things.

Kai offered her a sly smile as if confiding a secret. "I'm not so dangerous because of my fangs and magic, Bonnie, but because I pay attention. The past issues, however, I did research."

And her blood in his system sharpened his empathic link to her, but he wasn't going to inform her of that. She didn't need to hear it from him. She had to learn to feel it herself – then she would accept it as her own without resistance.

She smiled, not bothering to ask how he'd managed that research. She didn't need to know and nor did she want to give it any more power to manifest itself. She couldn't let those insecurities control her anymore, she couldn't let those reminders fester and breed. She needed to focus, to tackle the task at hand and take things day by day.

The fact that it was Kai at her side now and not Damon – well, that was a different problem entirely, one she wasn't sure she was ready to tackle quite yet herself.

A surprising smile that touched her lips elicited his own in return – unwitting as Kai once more thought of wishing to pull her closer and kiss those lips…

He yanked at his mind's leash and nodded towards the bathroom, "You better take care of your little nuisance. I really hope he's not spending the night here. Strangers in my sleeping place make me uneasy, and thus more dangerous." He winked at her and returned his attention to the TV screen.

Bonnie chuckled softly. "I'll do what I can. I won't make any promises though."

She raised her legs and averted her eyes back to the grimoire's pages, thumbing through it silently. She stood half an hour later and carried the book into the bathroom, setting it down on the closed lid of the toilet.

The manager was awake, wide eyed and terrified.

"What are you doing?" he asked as she slipped onto the edge of the bath, sliding her feet in beneath him, her arms coming to rest on the tops of her knees.

"I'm trying to erase my face from your memory."

"Y-your w-what?" he sputtered, drawing back as she reached to take his head into her hands, pressing the index and middle fingers of each to his temples.

"Just relax," she instructed, feeling him do the exact opposite. "This won't hurt. It shouldn't."

"You're crazy," the man stated without thinking, yanking his head from her hands. She licked her lips, feeling her patience wane somewhat and irritation flare to life. She got it. She'd kidnapped him and he was scared.

"Maybe," she reasoned, drawing him to her with no more than a moderate beckoning motion, watching as his face paled. She reestablished her position, closed her eyes and concentrated. "Mundatis hoc slate," she repeated over and over again, her voice becoming lower and more resolute. Gris made no sound at first, his breathing labored from fear and becoming more noticeable as time passed, his sounds of discomfort alerting her that the spell was working – it was taking effect. She opened her eyes, watching as a grimace of pain washed across his face. She removed her hands from his temples, giving him a minute to settle back to the norm.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"What… what am I doing here? Why am I here?" he began, his widening as he realized there was a belt across his throat, his eyes darting to his tied legs, his wrists already thoroughly numbed. "Let me out of here!"

Bonnie swung around, climbing out of the bath, and moved to crouch beside him, grabbing a hold of the rim for support. "I will," she said, offering him an amiable smile. "But first you need to calm down. To listen to me, and tell me what you know of the last twenty four hours."

"My wrists are killing me," he said instead, tugging upon them, struggling against the binding with zero effort and choking as the belt pulled tight around his throat.

"Please stop. I don't have a particular wish to see you strangle yourself. This is all just a precaution—"

"Precaution for what?!" Gris spat. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," she met his eyes, trying to assess whether or not he was playing her or whether or not the spell had worked. Would there be any real way of telling? How could she be sure? She cast a glance at Kai, he appeared absorbed in his newest movie. "Just tell me what you know and what the last thing you can remember doing is."

He said something about watching a show, booking some lady into C16 and calling his mother. She immobilized him, removing the bindings from his legs and wrists, and helped him out of the bath. Then she braced him against the wall with a hand against his chest, closing her eyes, once more muttering the incantation and mentally diving into his head, feeling his muscles bunch unpleasantly beneath her hand. Bonnie could tell that, unlike compulsion, this wasn't a fun way of erasing someone's memories, let alone compelling him. By the time she stopped and released him altogether, he looked as though he was a tenth of a second away from having a stroke.

"Well, err… thanks for coming to check things out," Bonnie said, taking his arm, leading him out of the bathroom—he stumbled slightly—and for the front door.

"Check? What did I—"

"A lightbulb blew," she answered, thinking fast, seeing his brows draw down in a frown as she nudged him outside. He looked as though he might be sick. "You might want to take something for that headache and get some sleep."

"Sure," he muttered, still sounding confused and out of it. She felt bad for him and watched for a while as he headed toward the office, a place that surely looked vandalized. They would have to leave by morning. "So?" she asked, taking a step back from the door, easing back around to face Kai. "Can you rest easy now?" Not that he looked to be having a problem with that. Not at all. In fact, she was almost jealous of how relaxed he appeared.

"Not that I was bothered much before," Kai said, never taking his eyes off the screen. "But who knows, I might've gotten territorial if he tried to sneak between you and I in our bed."

"And what makes you think there is a 'you and I' and a bed deserving of an 'our'?" she inquired, only now taking into account their meagre sleeping arrangements. She collected her grimoire, setting it down on top of her bag out of harm's way. "I know space is limited, that there aren't twin beds, but um… that couch next to you appears to be comfortable. I guess you'll have to make do with it." She eased onto the bed beside him once more, using her left hand to fluff the pillows behind her head and to make herself comfortable. It was late already. Or at least it felt late.

Kai gave her an exaggerated look of mocking disapproval as she lay down beside him. "I'm not gonna sleep with my legs dangling off it, nor would I stop you from trying to fit in there. I'm staying right here." He patted the space beside him.

She shook her head, fighting a smile as she envisioned his tall frame trying to make itself comfortable in the short couch. She didn't think she'd accomplish anything but it was worth a shot.

"Oh, and just so you know, I like sleeping naked. So you might wanna refrain from cuddling into me too much, I might misinterpret in my sleep."

"You're keeping your clothes on. We both are," she added firmly, flicking her gaze from the TV and to his face to see if he was kidding or deliberately trying to make things awkward. She assumed a bit of both. "You know I have twitchy fingers when the occasion calls for it, so let's try to keep the next few hours civil and spasm-free. Deal?" She didn't expect him to argue as she turned back to the screen to tried and figure out what they were watching. Was it a horror night or something?

"I don't command you to change your sleeping whims, and I ain't changing mine to suit yours without a marital contract to force me. As for your twitchy fingers, I suggest you mind them or don't complain when they're bitten off."

She paid no mind to his threat. And far too familiar with his bite. "Then let's pretend we're married. We're already halfway there," she retorted with fake cheer and a dotting smile that was almost affectionate. "I've no desire to see you naked and all this stress has given me a headache. It's like we've been at it for forty years." Or maybe she was just that exhausted. The other side and all this drama wasn't helpful. "We can even seal it in blood, too." She rolled over onto her side and displayed her wrist for lazy reference, cutting short whatever argument he had to negate her sarcasm. He'd need to feed at some point, anyway.

He glanced at it, then back at her, his smile widening as he slipped his shirt off over his head with one move and discarded it on the couch.

Bonnie lowered her arm as he pulled off his shirt, her eyes automatically darting to his chest, taking only a second to admire it before meeting his gaze. He looked as if he were up to no good.

His eyes never left hers, gleaming slyly. "Don't try to predict your desires – they seem to jump all over the place. And don't you know the best cure for headaches? Works wonders." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and next second, he was upon her, his hands restraining her wrists to either side of her head.

"Is—" she began, his rapid moving body seemingly cutting short her witty retort as he appeared over her.

His face hovered over hers; he wore a barely-there inscrutable smile. "I like my meal the way I like it. Not any other way."

"That's not what I was referring to," she responded, slightly breathless, his hot breath on her neck sending a burst of titillating zings to more nurtured areas. She hated Kai for it. She hated that he'd overridden her dread and turned their all-inclusive interaction into something beholden, something her body unwittingly hankered for.

He leaned in, breathing out against her jawline, nuzzling into the spot under her earlobe, enjoying the way her heart quickened and her own breath clicked in her throat. He dabbed tingling kisses along the side of her neck, laved at the pulsing vein. Her chest heaved as her breathing grew uneven. The familiar crawling sensation woke below his belt while Kai teased himself with the wondrous scent of her skin. It tasted salty and sweet at the same time. He felt her thigh between his legs and grinded slightly against it, suckling at her skin, her vein beating against his tongue. He let the fangs elongate, his gums itching like crazy, and smoothly sank them in her flesh. His eyes closed, a quiet groan vibrated in the very base of his throat – he barely noticed. Her taste rendered everything secondary.

It had been months since Bonnie had been with someone – with Jeremy – and yet, she couldn't recall feeling this on fire, this aware of everything he was doing. That was probably why he wasn't on his ass yet or wedged between the couch and the bed. She stiffened in response to her thoughts, curling the tips of her fingers into the backs of his hands, fighting the urge to moan in gratitude as his lips and tongue continued to tease her neck, his body briefly and subtly assimilating their movement. She automatically lifted her leg to press it tighter against his crotch in a meagre attempt to forestall his movement and distract herself as his teeth broke skin. She gasped, unable to restrain herself, her eyes threatening to slip closed. She didn't permit it, forcing herself to concentrate on the ceiling and to detach herself from the situation. It wasn't working wonders.

"Not a lot," she murmured, sure he'd understand, and struggling with the words, hoping to keep it all business all the time.

Kai didn't take much, having had his fill earlier today – if he was frank, he didn't need it. He _wanted_ it. He drew it out, drinking leisurely, savoring the taste and the vivacious, sparkling energy it sent through his cells and nerves. He withdrew his fangs, aware of becoming even harder with every passing second of her being too damn close, smelling like she did, as warm and bothered as she was. Kai flicked his tongue over the bite and blood collected there, then bit into his tongue and caught her mouth with his.

Bonnie felt an intrinsic loss as he stopped feeding and momentarily laved the spot with his tongue, pleased he seemed to take her request into consideration. She could breathe easier, or at least she did for all of a second before his lips swiftly found hers.

He kissed her harder than intended, but it was too tempting to resist. His tongue embraced hers, coating it with healing blood, while he felt he was nearing the red point of no return. It was too damn easy now to just step over it and let it rain magic. He tested himself distantly with that scenario, toyed with it in his mind and for a moment, he almost decided to give himself a go. But what he truly desired was better than that, after all. It was worth the restraint. He knew it was.

She was dazed for a second or two and molded into human putty, not because she wasn't expecting the kiss—she was, to some degree—but because of how passionate it was and how effortlessly she seemed to react. Their tongues dueling while his blood coated the inside of her mouth, fighting each other for dominance in a way that their stark power imbalance didn't always allow. Or it felt that way to her.

When Kai at long last pulled back, licked his lips and released his hold on her, Bonnie was frowning softly. What in the hell was wrong with her? What happened to 'I've no interest in seeing you naked'? Other parts of her anatomy were opposing that statement and turning her into a liar, a hypocrite. _I don't need this! Ugh!_

"That's a royal treat, Bonbon. You're spoiling me."

"I'm glad it's to your taste," she retorted, flashing him a tongue-in-cheek smile. "I live to bleed."

She relinquished the idea of struggling with the sleeping arrangements as she rolled off the mattress, needing to temporarily rid herself of his closeness and to break the ineffective spell that had taken a hold of her.

'Get it together, Bonnie. Stop acting like a juvenile,' she chided herself on the inside. She lifted the pillows, pulled back the duvet, uncaring that he was lying on half of it and crawled in beneath it, satisfied with the idea of trying to get some sleep. And blot out the rest of this day.

She could use a fresh start. She could do with less drama and conflicts constantly making her question herself.

"That's not polite to get in bed with me without a shower and still wearing the dead man's underpants," Kai remarked, waving a finger as if flicking a crumb off an invisible table, sending her out of the bed to the floor. A patient smile curved his mouth. "You may thank me for being considerate after you get refreshed." He made a shoo gesture inviting her to move her bullocks before it began to dawn.

Bonnie glared at him from where she lay on the floor, considering the idea of throwing him out of the window. She wasn't looking to change, to shower—not until morning at least—all she wanted now, was sleep.

"You're kidding me, right?" she asked, making no move to get up, using her elbows to prop her upper body so that she could well and truly glare at him.

He shook his head slowly two times. "Nope. Go get cleaned up. I might throw a bonus kiss on the cheek if you do." He looked back to the TV, inwardly willing himself to forget about the tight fly. Maybe it was he who needed a moment in the shower.

 _What I really need is a longer moment on top of her._

"Jerk," she uttered as she sat up, swiping a hand through the air listlessly, sending the small barrage of pillows she'd been trying to get comfortable on flying at his face. She didn't even watch them meet their mark. She stood up, dusted herself off and collected her bag, carrying it into the bathroom, deliberately slamming the door behind as she did.

In spite of herself, Bonnie appreciated the shower, scrubbing the day's drama from her skin, wishing she had some relaxing soaps and shampoo. She'd have to look at getting some tomorrow. She emerged from the bathroom ten minutes later, wearing a purple pair of sleep shorts and a tee-shirt.

He gave her a quick once-over and an approving smile. "See? All better. Now that you're clean enough to lie with me, c'mon in." He flipped the covers' end away, patting at the mattress next to him. "Do you need to cuddle to sleep? Or spooning works better? But I gotta warn beforehand: that spooning might get a bit uncomfy in the morning if I'm the one behind, you know." He displayed a smile that aimed for an apologetic one but with his eyes glimmering slyly, it wasn't quite making it.

"Just stay on your side of the bed," she replied, walking toward the bed, refraining from asking him if he was wearing pants beneath those covers. She wasn't in the mood to fight anymore. She climbed in, fluffed her pillows and turned to face him, tucking one hand under her head. "That goes for your feet, too," she added before he could think to shuffle them over to her side, cutting an imaginary line down the center of the bed with her free hand. "Imagine that there is a twenty by twenty foot wall between us, no in, no out and no awkward spooning."

"That's a waste of my wonderful imagination," he played back in a reproachful tone, grinning nonetheless.

She fought a smile and rolled onto her back, staring up at the ceiling to keep from laughing. Communicating with him wasn't supposed to be easy or even comfortable. She was mad at him or at least she should be.

"And the spooning's more likely to be okay for now, since it's not morning yet." He cocked his head to one side, eyeing her with a coquettish slyness. "I won't bite, cross my heart and hope to die."

"You've already bitten me. Twice," she deliberated. "So don't go getting any midnight snack ideas. Service is closed."

Kai watched her turn on her other side and away from him. "Don't pretend you found my bites unpleasant. I believe, with my current abilities, I'll know a lie from truth. You know, all those pulse changing et cetera signs."

Bonnie burrowed deeper into her pillow, pulling the duvet up under her chin as a silent means of dismissing him. She refused to admit anything, denying him any more ammo to use against her.

He shifted closer dexterously without letting her feel his movement through the bed, and tickled her ear with his breath, whispering, "How about midnight dessert? There are treats that don't require biting…"

She blinked, acutely aware of the heat radiating off his body. "No," she said, forcing herself to sound firm and determined. She didn't like—or appreciate—how easily he seemed to be breaking through her defences.

He killed people, hordes of them, some in her name.

"I'm not a fan of dessert," she mumbled. Careful not to lean into him, she nudged him with her right elbow back to his side of the mattress. "Not the type you're referring to, anyway."

Kai gasped in fake shock. "Here it is! A big fat lie. A girl as hot as you is made for that kind of desserts. And to justify the silliest thing you just said, I can only assume you haven't met a guy capable of delivering the kind of dessert a girl like you deserves. Plus, all those problems and deaths you were forced to deal with – no time for fun, was there? But now you're here, and your pesky friends and problems stayed behind. Like, you're on holiday. If anyone in the whole world deserves a holiday, it's you, Bonnie Bennett." He leaned in closer, his lips brushing against the shell of her ear while his hand sneaked to her waist, caressing.

She closed her eyes while he spoke against the shell of her ear, her heart skipping a beat as he unexpectedly stroked her waist, implanting an impulsive image in her head that made Bonnie blush. Part of her wanted to pretend he was some unknown complimenting her, some random charming stranger capable of revving anyone's engine. But he wasn't, and there was something markedly wrong with this situation, something beyond her control.

"You can have anything you ever wanted," he whispered, ignoring how she stiffened slightly at his touch, as if expecting a bite to spite her warning.

His whisper seemed to seep into her brain, tempting to take the plunge, to push aside the bullshit and live free. Life was too short, too complicated and too terminal.

Did she really want it to end this time without having tried things she feared? Without falling into old habits? No, but at the same time, she couldn't bring herself to relax, couldn't un-see or forget how he'd gnawed at that stranger, linked Elena to her or massacred his coven. Also, Damon would never let her hear the end of it. And why was she even thinking about it as if she would ever let it happen? As if she wanted it to happen?

He smiled and left a gentle kiss on her temple before rolling onto his back away from her. "Goodnight, Witchling."

She swallowed, feeling his lips against her temple, a contradiction of every bad thought and excuse she'd just summoned to the forefront of her mind. "Goodnight, Kai," she murmured, pulling one of the two pillows from beneath her head, easing it behind between their bodies to supply them with a makeshift wall. "It's a precaution. I roll a lot."

"I hope you don't snore a lot," he muttered in a perfectly feigned sleepy voice, shifting to a more comfortable position, and closed his eyes. The TV switched off as if on its own accord to considerately let them sleep.

Soon enough, they did.

* * *

"How long did Lucy say you have to wait?" Caroline asked while anxiously chewing her fingernail. She wished the woman would hurry up so that they could take to the road already.

"She didn't."

"Bonnie does locator spells in five or ten minutes."

"And it's been two hours," Damon countered, fighting his own impatience and need to call the woman back.

"Not by my watch," Caroline snipped and sat back, tossing him a blood pack. Bonnie had left but she had forgotten to remove the barrier spell from the basement.

"What's with you?" Damon asked in a weak attempt to distract himself, unfamiliar with Caroline's pessimistic behavior – generally that was _his_ beat. "Usually you're all sunshine and sickening positivity."

And then my mother died, Caroline thought to herself miserably. I went on a killing spree, had my best friend and might-be-lover do the same and now my other best friend, my sister, whom I only _just_ got back, has gotten herself into a situation I'm not entirely convinced she can get herself out of. Also I am worried she'll inadvertently do the exact opposite of what she's expecting and get herself killed, or into even more trouble.

Caroline removed her index finger from her mouth without a word, studying the jagged nail, and found a point on the floor to focus on. Damon scowled but chose to bite his tongue, he wasn't in the mood to talk.

Stefan made his way downstairs a little bit later, pulling on a black sweater over his wet head. He hadn't slept enough and needed a shower—which Caroline said he had enough time for—to wake himself up a bit more.

"Any news?" he asked once he entered the parlor, darting a look between the three people spread out around it. Jeremy sat away from them, sharpening a knife, looking far too deep in thought.

"Think we'd still be sitting here if there was?" Damon played back.

Caroline presented another blood bag, wordlessly asking if Stefan was hungry. He nodded, bringing his hands together as if to say 'throw it'. She did. He caught it and walked over to the bar for a glass.

"How's Ric doing?" Damon asked as the room sloped into silence.

Both Jeremy and Caroline looked attentive, too, as if they remembered they had even bigger issues.

"He's _still_ sleeping. That cocktail will have him out of it until morning. Or so the nurse says."

"And if he wakes up?"

"She'll call us."

"Is there a possibility of that happening?"

"I—" Stefan began, rudely cut short by Damon's ringtone and his brother's swift dismissal as he answered.

"You got something?"

Jeremy rose from the floor in front of the fireplace, leaving his weapons to move in closer on the vampires. Caroline sat forward in her chair and Stefan filled his glass to the rim, taking a small sip as he walked around the bar and came to stop in front of Damon. Both Caroline and Stefan strained their ears and listened in.

 _"I think—"_

"You think?" Damon parroted, restraining himself, trying not to snap at the woman for no good reason. "Aren't these things a bit more conclusive than that?"

 _"There seems to be something blocking me from making a direct connection to her."_

"Like what? A voodoo bracelet? A spell?"

 _"It could be unintentional. I can't single it out. All I know is what I can sense."_

Damon clenched his free hand into a fist. Why was Bonnie doing this? Or was it Kai? Did Bonnie even know?

 _"Are you still there?"_

"Yeah," Damon responded, uncoiling his fingers. "So what did you get? Anything I can work with?"

 _"Maryland."_

"As in the state?" Who did Bonnie know that was out there? And how far could she have gotten in the last few hours? Lucy forewent the obvious answer and pressed on after a few seconds of toying with her phone.

 _"I'm sending you a picture."_

Damon removed the device from his ear, turning Lucy on loudspeaker, and waited. It wasn't long thereafter that the mms appeared and reflected as a 'new message' on the screen, blinking red for all of a second.

"How sure are you about her being here, if you're struggling to make a link?" Damon asked, reviewing the piece of the map she'd sent him, eyeing the area around the blood trail that sliced through the center of it.

 _"I might not be able to precisely pinpoint where Bonnie is, but… it's there, she's there somewhere."_

"Alright," Damon said, accepting their unsatisfying manhunt. "I guess we'll have to make due. Thanks."

Caroline frowned, disturbed by his amiable manners and seeing Damon thank someone for something. That was an anomaly, an occurrence she'd never witnessed or seen over the last few years of dealing with him. He was constantly short, snide and to the point with her. He seldom treated her like an actual person.

 _"Just get her home safe and sound and have her call me as soon as you do."_

"You got it," he said and hung up. He took a minute to study the map, figuring out what he could remember about the area and the rife names scrawled here and there. She couldn't have used a road map? Caroline came to stand at his side, as did Stefan who was finishing off his blood.

"What are we waiting around for?" Jeremy asked eyeing the three of them with annoyance, bending to pick his knife and crossbow off the floor. "Let's get on the road."

"Not so fast, Mulan," Damon retorted, shaking off his brother and prospective sister-in-law, pocketing the phone as he put some distance between them. "We can't all go rushing off after her. What about Ric?"

"You're not going without me," Caroline piped up before Jeremy conjure a response. She looked unwavering and as if she were prepared to throw a punch if there was to be some unnecessary debate.

"I'm not staying, either," Jeremy seconded.

"Yes, you are," Damon said as he dragged his eyes away from the determined blonde. "She's a vampire with assortment of heightened senses that are useful in a fox hunt. You're not."

"I'm a hunter," he bristled, insulted, as if that title alone should have given him merit.

"You're also Elena's baby brother."

 _"Meaning?"_

"Meaning, that if I get you killed now, she'll kill me when she wakes up. And I'm picturing our reunion going a whole other way."

Jeremy pulled a face. "Spare me tales of your reunion and let's go. We're wasting time."

He started towards the door, but Damon blocked his way, his eyebrows pulled together.

"Don't make me knock you out, little Gilbert, 'cause it's gonna be hard not to overdo."

Jeremy stepped into him, his eyes flashing with a cold rage frosted with hatred. Damon couldn't tell whether he or Kai was the focus of it. "It's _Bonnie_. I'm coming whether you like it or not. Try to stop me and I'll kill you."

Something imperceptible shifted in Damon, enough to refrain from stopping Jeremy this time when he strode to the door and out. Perhaps, it wasn't such a bad idea to have him in – he felt the same way about Kai as Damon did. Damon wasn't as sure about Stefan and Caroline, let alone Bonnie herself. That one was seriously screwed up in the head, which Damon had to fix somehow. But first thing's first.

He turned to focus on Stefan and Caroline. "Let's not waste any more time, shall we? We'll talk on the road."

"What if Lily comes back?" Caroline asked as they headed for the garage. "What if, in her madness, she decides to go to Ric this time to use him as a leverage on us?"

"I'm not sure she knows where he lives or even remembers about his existence," Stefan said, wishing he were more certain about it.

"Enzo does," Caroline said. "And he's her go-to man now, whatever he knows we should assume she knows."

"We should just busy her with the very thing she's eager to rip her nails into," Damon responded, sliding a hand into his pocket to retrieve his car keys.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Stefan asked.

"By giving her what she wants," Damon stated as if Stefan was being dense, as if he'd missed something.

"Those heretics? And how do you expect we'll do that?"

"I'd go with the next best thing."

Even Caroline struggled to follow along. What did they have to offer that was even going to get her attention?

"Kai," Damon explained as though they were dense, reading the look of temporary misperception on both their faces.

"And what makes you think Bonnie is going to go for something like that?" Stefan asked.

"She's not," Caroline stated, shaking her head, remembering how fierce and determined she was.

"I don't care what Bonnie wants," Damon particularized. "I'm bringing her home kicking and screaming."

"That's not why we're going there. That's not why we're following her. I just want to make sure she's okay," Caroline said as though it were the most apparent concept in the world.

Damon didn't appear to be listening anymore.

"Damon," Stefan stopped and grabbed his key-holding hand.

"Get out of my way," Damon snapped, feeling his temper rise and exasperation get the better of him.

Stefan released his wrist and held up his hands in mock surrender. "Before we do anything let's talk about this—let's formulate a half decent plan. Bonnie's scared of Lily. That's why she left. You think driving lily there is going to help our situation? We want her on our side, don't we?"

Damon appeared to think about it, nodding pensively. Stefan relaxed and flitted his eyes to Caroline. Damon lashed out before Stefan could think to read the fire in his eyes, his neck snapping with an effortless and sharp twist, his body crumbling to the floor at his feet. Caroline gaped, confused and barely able to make sense of what was going on when all of a sudden a pair of garden shears slipped through her abdomen and dropped her to her knees. She coughed, her mouth parted in shock.

"Sorry about that, Blondie. But Bonnie needs help making the tough choices and obviously I'm the only one to help her do it. Let my brother know I'll call him later."

Caroline stared up at him, tears in her eyes, blood pooling in her mouth. He watched her take her last breath, feeling not even a stitch of remorse as he picked up the keys and made to slip in behind the Camaro's steering wheel.

"What the hell?" Jeremy inquired, observing the bodies, then directing his eyes to Damon, either with confused indignation.

"They'd let our witchy have her way with Kai, didn't you get it?" Damon said. "And I say our witchy needs to get her shit together, which I'm willing to help with. What is _your_ business, Gilbert?"

Jeremy eyed the two on the floor, considering, then nodded grimly and gave Damon a brisk beckoning wave. "Let's use my car."

Damon shrugged and went to claim shotgun as he dialed Lily.

"Who're you calling?" Jeremy asked, pulling from the Boardinghouse.

"My mother. We need Kai distracted to snatch Bonnie away."

She didn't answer the first time he tried to call, and by the fifth the line opened up.

 _"Your mother's indisposed at the moment, mate. You might want to call back later. Or never."_

Enzo.

"Actually, I think she might want to talk to me this time," Damon said. "She's still looking for her family, right?"

There was a snort on the other side of the line and he could hear her say something exasperated and unladylike.

"Well, what if I can give her the siphon-sucker that promised them to her and didn't deliver?"

There was a scuffle, and then Lily voice crossed the line.

 _"Where is he?"_


	21. Chapter 21

_**A/N a.k.a Bonnie's foreword:** **jordanjanellejoy** (Damon is a bully and likes things being a certain way. His way. As for Kai, like he said, they were the closest thing he had to entertainment in 1994. He knows her almost as well as Damon does, if not more in some cases.), **JustStockton** (I don't even know where to start with my response. I'm speechless. We're flattered and love that you're enjoying every aspect of the story. Damon is going back to his old "bad guy villain" roots. He wants what he wants and he'll do anything to get it at this point and Lily, unlike Stefan, won't have her conscience get in the way.), **itscalledkarma** (Kai is such a contradictory creature. He causes trouble for Bonnie, sets her down in a situation and then makes a point of trying to help her out of it. As for Lily, I guess we'll have to wait and see how Bonnie deals with her current nightmare, especially so soon.), **nekittam** (Damon can be a real dick when he has his mind set on something. Lucy was a victim of his manipulation. She's only trying to help her distant cousin, trying to do what she can from afar. It's tough and unintentional. Yes, Lily is just an ordinary vampire. Nothing special about her, aside from the fact that she's a Salvatore and a ripper. Which is a complication in itself. Again, I agree with you. Damon doesn't always see the bigger picture until it's too late and the damage is done. But then again, I don't think he cares about the outcome or making things right. He just wants Elena and his would-be promise of a happy human life back. Or at least that's what it looks like from the outside. He cares for Bonnie in his own twisted way.), **jummmee** (So very glad you're enjoying it. We're loving your feeback!), **Melika** (Kai is certainly good at this seduction game he is playing and enjoying throwing her off kilter. Bonnie is so vulnerable, so lost in her various traumas that for right now – she's making it easy. At least to some extent), **babyshan211** (Damon has his positive points for sure! But let's hope it's not too late to turn back, hm? Who knows, maybe this'll turn out differently and with a less bloody end. #ProbablyNot)_

 _So nice to see new faces amongst our reviewers, too. Thank you everyone for making our night!_

* * *

 **CHAPTER 21**

Stefan grunted at the jolt of pain in his neck as he stirred, and opened his eyes, recollecting where he was and what had happened. It was dawning outside, and the timid light seeped into the garage to barely outline the shapes. His ears rang a little, and through that he could hear a familiar melody playing over and over. He could smell blood, too, and that brought him to sit up, wincing as he rubbed his neck. He became aware of the insistent vibration in his back pocket, but before he thought of answering, his eyes fell on the fair spot on the floor next to him that were Caroline's blond hair. There was a faint heartbeat starting in her.

It all came back to Stefan in a flash, his worry spiking as he moved towards her and the hand he propped on the floor got into a slimy pool. The smell of blood intensified. He winced, automatically wiping it on his thigh, and examined Caroline. She moaned in pain as she was coming about.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, pulling her to him as gently as he could. "I'll get it out, okay?" He yanked the garden shears from her belly and tossed them aside. She cried out and shivered. He held her a few moments, then got up with her in his arms. That bastard, he thought. How long had they been out? And would it be wise to even hope to catch up to those two idiots on a deadly mission?

Caroline managed a trip to the basement for blood packs while Stefan answered the next call. The next problem. It was Alaric's nurse, distressed.

"He woke up about an hour ago, Mr. Salvatore, and he all but kicked me out. I'm at his door, but I couldn't fight him to stay in. Will you come to talk to him? Otherwise there's nothing I can do for you."

Stefan rubbed his forehead, thinking bitterly, Now, that's just what we needed. "It's all right, Mrs. Whittle. I'm gonna be there in a few. Just… just stay there, he's not himself, I'm sure. I'll take care of it."

"Yes, I'll wait. Thank you."

"Is it Ric?" Caroline handed him the blood pack. He opened it and had a few swallows.

"He woke up somehow and kicked the nurse out. I need to go ASAP."

"Oh my God… I'll go, too. But what about Bonnie? We do have to follow, right?"

Stefan looked at her, undecided. "Probably. Let's just change and deal with Ric first. I'll call Damon."

"I'll call Jeremy. They teamed up against us!"

Stefan only snorted on his way upstairs. Even if Jeremy thought they were in the same team with Damon, Damon had another idea, Stefan was sure of it.

"We can track their phones, right?" Caroline said as they trotted up the stairs to Alaric's apartment. Neither answered their phones, which both angered and frightened her. She had never wished for anything as badly as she did for Bonnie to call her before this mad play moved to a catharsis.

"Yeah, worth a try." He gave her his cell. "There's an app there, use it."

A subtle relief played through the nurse's aging face when she saw them. Stefan nodded at her and knocked on the door.

"Ric? It's Stefan. Please, let me in, I've got something to tell you."

Nothing.

The women exchanged worried glances. Both vampires could hear a heartbeat behind the door, and that eased the wariness, but still it couldn't tell them what state Alaric was in. And that held crucial importance.

Stefan rapped at the door again. "Ric, please. I need to talk to you. Let me in, or I'll have to slam the door in. Please."

"Go the hell away and leave me alone."

Caroline's face darkened. Alaric's voice was slurry a touch, either from drugs or he had been crying. Both prospects had her heart squeeze in sympathy.

"Last warning," Stefan said. "Please, Ric, let me in."

Nothing.

Stefan prepared to push the door in, but just for luck he turned the knob first. The door opened.

Inside he was greeted by a putrid mix of alcohol and stale air. Alaric sat on his bed in a wife beater and underpants, his back against the wall, a half-full bottle of whiskey between his thighs. His eyes were red and puffy, his whole face seemed kind of slumped. He gave Stefan a fleeting glance, then went back to staring in front of him, slowly bringing the bottle's neck to his slack lips, tilting, bringing it back between his thighs.

"I know there's nothing I could possibly say to make you feel any better," Stefan started in a quiet, pacifying voice. "It takes time, sometimes a lot – I know. But right now, you still have friends that worry about you. I know you hardly care, and I understand, we all do. But we do care, and we need you. We need you to not give up just yet. Elena would've wanted it more than anything – I know that, too. Her brother's still with us, and he's kind of your responsibility, in a way – since it's your approval that saw him off to his hunting trips. He told us. And now he might be in danger again, and we need to go see that he's safe. But I need you to be safe, too, do you understand? Can you do that for me, for the old times' sake?"

Alaric gulped some whiskey and said nothing, still staring into the space.

Stefan sighed. "Bonnie took off 'cause my brother did his best to get to her. And she took her prisoner with her, and now we don't even know if she's all right. Jeremy went with Damon – they knocked us out to do it alone. And they're going to get my mother and Enzo into this. It's a mess, and I know it's not your mess and I shouldn't bother you with any of it, but I really need you to take it easy on yourself—"

"I took it easy on myself," Ric uttered in a voice that sounded more like croaking. A small chuckle escaped his lips creasing in a hideous smile that reminded Stefan of the ancient masks from the Greek tragedy theater. "And look how well that worked out. I should've taken it the way my gut told me. But no… Y'all wanted a wedding… celebration… look what we've got." Slowly, the corners of his mouth drooped, and his body began to shake as he cried.

Stefan's heart squirmed in sympathy. He sat beside Ric, put his hand on the teacher's shaking shoulder, squeezing. He wanted to say he was sorry – such an unwitting thing to say that it bursts right out – and didn't. He just kept his hand on him until Ric took another swallow, and the sobs gradually quietened.

"You should go," Ric said at last.

"Let Mrs. Whittle stay. She'll help you."

"No. I want to be alone." Another gulp. A huge one.

"You need to sleep."

"I don't want to sleep. I don't need to see it again and again and…" He restrained a sob and drowned it in another swallow.

"She can give you a shot that'll keep the dreams away. Just let her stay for tonight. Please, Ric. Do it for me and Caroline, your worried friends, while we try to contain another catastrophe."

Alaric didn't answer and Stefan took it as a good sign. He nodded at Caroline over his shoulder, and she quietly disappeared from the doorway to converse with the nurse.

Alaric was shaking again – subtly, and it took Stefan a moment to realize he was laughing. It was a creepy sight. "You know why Damon went without you, don't you," Ric said, and it wasn't a question. Stefan frowned, and it seemed to entertain the teacher some more. If that dark merriment of a prophet promising death could be called humor. "He can solve his problem right there, get rid of them both, and then tell Elena Kai killed them and he couldn't do squat about it. 'Tis why he left you behind." He took another slug.

Stefan felt as if he was freezing inside. He didn't look back but was sure Caroline paled. He could hear her frantic heartbeat.

"He wouldn't," he said, but it sounded pathetically weak even to himself.

Alaric gave him a look and drank. "You better hurry."

* * *

"I was beginning to think you might have gotten lost," Damon said, ambling over to the vehicle that pulled up beside him on the small dirt road across from Crain Park Memorial.

"With the trusty assistance of modern technology?" Enzo responded as Damon leaned in at the driver's window, prodding at the GPS centered in the middle of his windscreen for prominence. "Is that even possible?"

"Sure," Damon remarked. "Especially for two outdated vampires."

"You wound me, Mate," Enzo replied flippantly. "I was assured that it wouldn't if I charted it to the letter."

"And?"

"We got lost twice."

Damon gave a derisive laugh. "Where'd you get it?"

"Off a helpful gas attendant."

"You stole it?"

" _Appropriated_ it," Enzo provided.

Lily swung open the passenger door, her brunette locks still impeccably pinned into place to further add to her regale grace, adorned in a black woolen coat. Damon straightened up and gazed at her as she walked around the front of the car, loathing the dull ache that came from seeing her as the headlights bathed her in light. For a long time she'd been one of the pure untouched gems in his life, a memory he held dear that now appeared foreign to him – as if everything he'd believed her to be had been a false. Resentment kicked in as if on cue, her eyes wide, round and eager for answers as she approached. Damon was sure that if it wasn't for his enticement she wouldn't have cared to come at all and couldn't help but wonder, if only for a second, what would have happened if she put half as much effort into trying to save her actual children from her wretched husband's abuse. Where would he and Stefan be now? Would Damon be dead? Would Katherine have happened? Would he have been happy?

"This infernal woman is hell-bent on making me crazy!" Lily said, breaking Damon out of his melancholic run, that quiet polite demeanor she'd been taxing since her return no longer evident on her scrunched features. She was in a bad mood. "Turn right, turn left on such and such a road. She doesn't stop talking!"

Damon watched as Lily walked past him and toward the parked car Jeremy was tending to, cupping her hands against the grimy windows to peer inside. Jeremy scowled, surprised to see the woman.

"Where is he?" Lily asked, removing her hands from the window, unmindful of the dust that cling to sides of her hands as she turned to face her son. "Is he here? It's not him in the front seat."

Damon furrowed his brows imperceptibly and shook his head.

"You said he was with you."

"I _never_ stated that. I said I can get him to you."

"Son," she said, drawling the singular word as though it left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth, a tang that was getting harder to digest cordially. "I am in no mood for your confounding sports."

She looked war-torn and as if she were prepared to charge him. Enzo pushed upon the driver's door, forcing Damon to step aside so he could climb out and play mediator. Lily was volatile.

"And nor am I playing any, Mother," Damon snapped with comparable pettiness, his hands raised in mock surrender. "How else was I going to get you two here at a timely fashion? You disowned me, remember?"

Lily eyes blazed and held not even a stitch of repentance in the moonlight. He found himself hating her for her detachment, if only for a second. He wanted her to feel something – for him.

"You and your brother talk of family, of needing me and wanting me in your life, but neither of you care to understand," she sputtered for the umpteenth time in a month, sounding like a wounded animal on the brink of a break and as if she'd expected his treachery, as if somehow all Damon did was hurt her. Enzo flanked her right side, taking a gentle hold of her shoulder to nonverbally offer her the comfort she so needed.

"What's the deal, Mate?" Enzo asked. He didn't look half as livid as she—or Damon—did. "And what's with baby Gilbert? Where's Stefan?" Jeremy turned in the driver's seat, leaning forward to listen more closely.

Damon ignored his question, leaning back against the side of the car. "Stefan couldn't make it. He isn't coming."

Lily looked relieved. She dreaded another toe to toe with her youngest son. He was stubborn.

"And nor is Kai," Damon added, bringing home his point, watching his mother stiffen and fight the urge to slap him. She looked as if she wanted to rip into someone – quite possibly him. "But he _is_ in this area."

Damon removed his phone from his jacket pocket, taking a second to bring up the image Lucy sent him in order to show them where they needed to look. Lily'd calm down once she had a heading.

"So we're stuck with another bloody needle in a haystack," Enzo grumbled with an amused lint. " _Perfect_."

"From what our Tech hunter has found…" Damon said, looking back at Jeremy and snapping his fingers. Jeremy extended his phone out the window. He'd been searching motels, trying to plot a route for the four of them. "The upside is that they don't know anyone in this area. Neither are they flush with cash. Which means that stopping in to check on every motel on this highway might not be such a bad idea."

"And how do we know they aren't running around in the woods? That bloodline wasn't all too specific, Brother."

Damon shrugged. "Because she'll need somewhere to shackle him. Kidnapping isn't something she keeps on her resume."

Enzo didn't ask who he was referring to. He had a fair idea. Lily on the other hand looked blank.

"If you two tackle everything on the left side of the road. Jeremy and I can attack the right," Damon explained, letting both vampires observe the MapQuest layout and the dark blue line.

"And what are we supposed to do once we come across them?" Enzo asked once more. Lily appeared indifferent.

" _Nothing_. You call me and then we handle this together. It's a joint effort. Kai is pretty powerful. Bonnie, too, when provoked."

Lily looked repulsed by the mention of the female witch. Like Damon, she, too, held grudges. "And what has Miss Bennett got to do with anything?" she asked, interjecting for the first time in five minutes.

Damon raised his eyebrows, "Did I forget to mention her?"

Enzo rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

"She's _my_ part of the deal. You get Kai and I get Bonnie."

"She is a vile woman," Lily said, still seething from Bonnie's former betrayal. "And a liar."

Damon let the comments slide in favor of keeping the peace. Bonnie was many things, but she was a good person, a friend and someone he'd grown to love. As much as he fought for Elena, he needed her, too. But he needed the unabridged version—the person that backed his corner when he sought to do senseless things—not this broken guilt-ridden girl trying to make amends with the world for the implicit wrongdoings of others. For mass murder she didn't even commit, even if she believed otherwise.

"You've got it?" Damon asked, turning to Enzo with full attention. Enzo took a last glance at Jeremy phone and nodded. He handed it back. Damon tossed it inside and Jeremy caught it. "Great."

"Do you remember what kind of car she drives?" Enzo asked as he approached the driver's door.

Damon simpered, "You ghost stalked her for all of a week and you don't know?"

Lily climbed into the passenger seat again, ripping the GPS off the windshield, carelessly tossing the device in the back of the car no longer wanting to listen to the robotic woman's persistent instruction.

"A white Toyota Prius," Damon said, and opened the passenger door to Jeremy's car.

Enzo nodded, imitating his action and slipped back behind the steering wheel.

"Can we trust them?" Jeremy asked once he pulled back onto the highway.

"Can you trust me?" Damon countered.

Jeremy didn't answer and instead turned on the radio to drown out the silence, doing away with the obstinate tension rising between them. They, too, had a rocky relationship and neither was prepared to sugar-coat it.

* * *

Bonnie's eyelashes fluttered as the first stages of wakefulness seeped in. She nestled deeper into the arm secured around her waist, lightly squirming against the form curled up behind her, perturbed by the pressure on her bladder. Bonnie stayed that way for a while, ignoring the uncomfortable sensation—a long while—and was at risk of falling asleep again, of giving into the security and the welcome warmth provided by Jeremy's chest.

The memories rolled in like a thick fog of puzzling dreams, making her feel as though she were wading through molasses, slowly wiping the discernable smile of contentment from her face. She wasn't with Jeremy anymore, she'd been dead, then returned, and now she was stuck in some newborn hell practicing compulsion and cleaning up dead bodies after her latest nemesis.

Gone was her tiredness—and desire to sleep in—and in trundled awareness like a scorching steam engine prepared to run her off the rails. She gently released the wrist she'd been holding onto, the hand she'd secured beneath her breasts, and opened her eyes, peering at her empty side of the bed, surprised to find that, by coercion or some twisted need, she'd made her way over to his. She was exhausted last night and could hardly remember falling asleep. They'd watched a movie in part, but she couldn't even remember which. Not that it mattered. She reached for the wrist again, carefully preparing to lift it and to steadily—and without waking him—wriggle over to her side of the mattress. She stopped for a second when she felt something brush against the back of her thigh, something she recognized immediately. He was hard. Bonnie didn't stop to check—as if she would—and kept moving, shuffling away and out of bed on the other side. She glanced back to make sure he was still sleeping, that he wasn't about to hit her with some witty comment and catch her red-handed, and then stood. She walked over to the bathroom, removed the towel and closed the door behind her quietly.

Stirring from her sleep, Bonnie pulled Kai in her wake, but he made no move, relishing in the remaining relaxation and fogginess of pre-waking state. Distantly, he felt her fleeting touch before she removed herself from the bed for the shower, heard her pulse spike and imagined a subtle flush coloring her cheeks. He almost smiled, but she never caught the sight of it.

She took a quick shower to help wake herself up and wash away last night's unexpected cuddle session. She'd paid a few days in advance in the motel, three to be precise, but after what happened Bonnie didn't want to stay.

She emerged from the bathroom with her pajamas tucked beneath her arm, pleased to find Kai still sleeping, and moved to crouch beside her bag. She dropped the clothes to the floor, dug around for some clean underwear, and pulled it on underneath the towel, being quick to shimmy into it. She reached into her bag again, digging around for some loose change, and came out with a lip-gloss. She tossed it back inside and reached for the second bag—the stranger's belongings, the person Kai killed the day before. She'd taken his wallet, casually tossed inside amongst the clothes, but a part of her hoped she wouldn't have to use it. As if by some chance money would materialize and Bonnie wouldn't take from this man's livelihood.

She opened the leather wallet and thumbed through the few notes inside. There was four hundred dollars total. Enough for four nights in a motel somewhere, dinner – no lunch or breakfast – and a little gas.

Not that she knew where they were going—all she knew was that they needed to go, that as good as she slept, last night was still only catching up to them.

She shed the towel, pulled on her jeans and purple tank top, reached inside for her hairbrush. She needed a breakfast. She'd have to make due with something from the vending machine and by that time Kai would be awake.

Kai had dozed off while the water ran, and only surfaced back when Bonnie was rummaging through the bags.

"Even though you robbed the man's wallet, it's nice to see you're wearing your own clothes this time," he teased, rising on an elbow. She started at the sound of his voice, which entertained him.

She shuddered softly, tipping over onto her knees, her heart racing as she stuffed the hairbrush back into her bag, hating herself for her reaction and how easy she made it for him to read her—and her evasive thoughts.

"Those jeans sit real good on your ass. His trousers wouldn't favor it as well." He grinned at the ghost of irritation on her face.

She peered at him on the bed, ignoring his crass compliment, dispelling the guilt worming over her as she made to pick up the wallet again. Bonnie removed two fifty-dollar notes and a single ten, leaving the balance inside the leather holder along with his identification card. She stuffed it back into her bag for safekeeping.

"I wouldn't have had to resort to wearing someone else's clothes," she indicated, pushing off the floor, fitting him with a meaningful look, "or make use of his cash if you didn't burn mine off yesterday."

Kai gave her a pointed, taunting look meant to express how he would not have done any of it had she fed him without creating complications for herself.

"Speaking of," she pocketed the money, "I want to get a head start on the road today."

Bonnie looked around the room, gathered everything she used in the past half-hour, and zipped up her bag, tossing the other—with male clothes—toward the bed for Kai's closer inspection.

"I'm going to loot the vending machine. You want anything?"

"I want _you_ ," he smiled, wiggling fingers at her, magically pulling her to him. "And I don't suggest you bother with the vending machine – there's only outdated crap." As soon as she was close enough, he hooked a finger into her top's cleavage line, drawing her closer.

She readied a retort and was about to let him know that it was all they—she—could afford when his finger distractedly grazed her breastbone. She didn't resist his guidance and eased onto the edge of the mattress on her knees.

"How about you give me my fix," he said, "and I drive you to dine in some nice place away from this hole?"

She didn't try to resist his magic, yet Kai could sense the conflict between anticipation and resentment.

 _It's just the beginning, Bonnie. And I can wait._

"And just how do you expect we'll pay for nice?" she asked, her lips twitching slightly, ignoring the way he'd easily summoned her like a leashed puppy. "You got money stashed away in places I don't know about?" Might have been more useful to know that earlier, if it were true.

He laughed, stroking a hand up her shoulder and to the nape of her neck, gently maneuvering her to lie down as he moved to hover over her.

A titillating charge hurried up her arm at his cajoling. She didn't hesitate and rolled onto her back at his mute request. _We've done it enough times now._

His finger traced the side of her neck, the line of her collarbone. "Oh, Bonnie, I'm your magical pot of gold on the end of the rainbow." Smiling, as though to himself, Kai leaned in, breathing against her throat before his lips touched it, dabbing kisses toward her ear.

Her arms stayed stationary at her sides as he leaned in, her hands curling into the sheets to refrain from touching him as his hot breath and long-awaited lips trailed kiss after kiss along the base of her throat. Bonnie stifled a beholden groan, eyelids threatening to flutter shut as she focused on the door in the distance, inadvertently giving him better access to her pulse. She should make a point of warning him off playing with her, she should tell him to stop being so tender and to get right into it – but she didn't, she didn't have the want or voice to do either.

"A bottomless pot of gold…" he whispered, sucking and laving on the skin before he let his fangs sink in.

They shivered simultaneously, she – at the momentary pain, and he – at the stroke of pleasure that reached his erection and made him want more. He shifted closer to her, grinding against her hip as an unconscious groan vibrated in the base of his throat.

Bonnie trembled as his teeth broke skin and a pressure seared her shoulder, automatically reaching for his side, nails digging into his hip as she rode out the temporary surge of pain. An invitation that seemed to spur Kai on and drew him closer, giving her an even better—and more prominent—feel of the hardness she'd done her utmost to avoid. Her lips parted as she lost herself in the varying sensations, groaning softly as he swallowed away of her life force, a spicy concoction of pleasure and pain that drew her deeper and deeper with every pull and soon made her head swim.

Her taste was building up the delectation in him, intercepting and magnifying the jolts of sexual need for release. For those few moments, Kai lost himself in that build-up, and only came around at the sudden blinding peak when the liquid warmth spilled in the sheets between them.

She let go of the sheet and clawed his shoulder, raising and bending her knees a touch to accommodate the proficient roll of his hips and to listlessly seek her own friction, a response that seemed to go on forever when at long last his lips fused with her own. In that instant, Bonnie didn't want it to end.

An unhallowed thought that manifested and splintered the second he ended the kiss and rolled off her. She dropped her hands to her stomach, staring up at the ceiling as he smiled at her and thickly swallowed the blood she could taste upon her tongue. Bonnie needed to calm down and stop letting him get to her so much. She was beginning to act desperate, as if she were starved for sex – for him.

"I love these meals," he said. "You're a great cook, honeybunch. Just as I am. However, we'll start with a restaurant treat for you."

He slipped out of bed and strolled to the bathroom, unabashed by his nudity and Bonnie's eyes on him.

She averted her gaze from the ceiling and chuckled incredulously, a hint of sardonic amusement that died in her throat as he slid from beneath the sheets, gifting her with an admirable view of his backside. Bonnie hadn't even realized she was staring or that she was outlining every detail of his body to memory as he headed for the bathroom.

"Now we're truly square, aren't we?" With a parting wink, Kai made Bonnie flush and closed the door.

Things were getting too intimate – too quickly. Bonnie wasn't able to tell anymore if it was an onset from feeding—something he enticed in her like a snake does with poison when it wants to paralyze its prey—or if it was her, if it was wholly her reaction. She hated to think that it might be the latter. As the door closed behind him, she reached for a pillow, pulling it over her head to muffle her whimper.

 _Fuck_ …

* * *

"Any luck?" Jeremy asked from his lazy draped position over the steering wheel. Damon scowled at him and shook his head. They had been at this for hours and left no proverbial stone unturned. They'd compelled and covered miles on foot and by car, deciding to add two bed-and-breakfasts to their list as well. Bonnie might have opted for something cozy – she did always like the homely setting. Enzo and Lily called intermittently and as if they were checking in on them scared they'd run away with the loot. Damon, on the other hand, was growing weary and more irritated with every passing mile, and hungry, too. He had fed on one of the night staff managers a couple of hours earlier, a nineteen-year-old blonde with a big bust and a friendly smile. She'd been tasty and something to tide him over, but that thrill was starting to wear off. He had even called Bonnie – they both did, hoping that maybe she'd pick up and give either of them a hint of their location. A fruitless task and another waste of time.

"Let's try the next one… Cadillac something," Damon proposed as he approached the driver's window. Jeremy sat back, flipped on the engine and pulled away the instant Damon reclaimed the passenger seat.

"How you holding up, Gilbert?" Damon asked. "Do we need to stop and get a coffee in you?"

"Do we have any more time to waste? No. I—I've seen and dealt with worse over the last few weeks. I'm fine."

"Have you?" Damon persevered, his lips crooking into a suspicious smile. They hadn't spoken about anything other than the little rain they'd experienced and the road, neither knowing how to address the eternal nap mess elephant in the room. "You mean to tell me you've really been playing Winchester and trying to tackle ghosts? Elena would _hate_ that."

"Well, I… I'm _trying_ to follow leads."

"Which you get from where? The newspaper?"

Jeremy faltered at the prospect of the two of them making anything remotely akin to everyday conversation as it felt off-the-wall. They'd never talked, not like this and not after Damon had snapped his neck the first time. Jeremy would never have said it to Elena—mostly because she wouldn't listen—but he didn't trust Damon, not at all. Still, he didn't have anyone else to talk to. No Elena, Alaric, Matt or Bonnie. All his go-to people were dealing with their own disasters.

"There is a supernatural finder website I used frequently when I first found out about Anna. Most of the people are cracked, but there is a handful of individuals who have reported legitimate issues. Things I recognize."

"And you've actually fought something?"

"No, well… so far it's all been bogus."

"Then what do you plan to do?"

"You mean after we rescue Bonnie from her witchpire kamikaze mission?"

Damon nodded.

"I'm looking at getting back on the road."

"And Alaric?"

"He doesn't need me," Jeremy responded, sounding as though he were trying to convince himself of that fact.

"His budding family was massacred on his wedding day and you think he doesn't need you? That he is going to be able to move on from this with just my advice?"

Jeremy gave no response and instead made a point of focusing on the road signs ahead, appreciating the sight of the sun rise upon the horizon. The dawn of a new day. Damon didn't pressure Jeremy either—not as he might have if it was in relation to Elena—he was beyond that now, he hadn't the energy to help the kid see the light or make him give up on his future because some psycho decided to rip their happily-ever-after apart with his bare hands.

Damon turned on the radio, drowning out the silence and the next fifteen miles.

"Maybe _I_ should try to talk to someone," Jeremy said once they pulled to a stop outside the enormous motel. It looked like a small community in its length, like a range of apartments. "I could go door to door."

"And what are you going to say? My ex-girlfriend kidnapped a sociopath, who may or may not be snacking on you in the near future. I need to find her because she's making the biggest mistake of her life?"

Jeremy frowned, expelling a deep sigh. He was sick of taking Damon's orders, of having the vampire believe he was the only person that cared about anyone. But most of all, he was tired of living in his shadow.

"Just stay in the car. When we find Bonnie, we'll go in together. For now, I don't want the risk of her seeing either of us or… anyone else telling them—her—that there are people searching for her."

"You mean Lily?"

As if on cue, the cellphone rang. Damon lifted his hips off the chair, pulled out the device and answered.

"We haven't found them yet," he reported.

"We need a new plan. This isn't working out," Enzo said. Lily was becoming disgruntled, even more than she was with the space they were putting between Mystic Falls and her beloved heretics.

"Meet us at the Cadillac Motel."

"The where now?"

"You didn't see the signs?" Damon asked. "Look it up on your phone."

"How?"

Damon tossed the phone to Jeremy, conveying the issue and how he needed to help Enzo. Jeremy unenthusiastically lifted it to his ear, as if the idea of conversing with Enzo aggrieved him. He hated the sonofabitch. Not that Damon cared. What they'd done to Jeremy all those months ago to get their hands on the last Whitmore was in the past and Jeremy needed to move on. Elena, Enzo and Damon assuredly had.

Damon climbed out of the car without a backwards glance, listening as Jeremy proffered his nemesis with instructions on how to make use of google maps. He made his way up the small porch and into the reception area, a sparsely decorated room with meager furnishings.

"Hi," he said as he walked in, noticing a figure behind the counter. "Excuse me."

The man raised his head off his bent arms, blinking lethargically, his eyes glassy and red from whatever alcohol he'd spent the night drinking to ward off the boredom of his monotonous job. The guy didn't bother with a greeting and reached for a nearby clipboard, lifting it up onto the counter to put down in front of him.

"Sign your full name and car license plate number," the man instructed, using his pen to point out the two lines in need of authorization and specifics. "It's forty-two dollars a night, you've free range of the pool, no noise or lewd parties and out by noon the next day otherwise you're charged another night."

Apparently he'd perfected that sales pitch. He didn't even bother to smile.

"I'm not looking to stay," Damon said, making no move to take the offered pen or the clipped paper. "I'm looking for someone. Petite, dark-haired, caramel skin, green eyes. She has a _boy_ with her." Damon refused to refer to that jam-fingered magic sucker as a man. "Yay high," he motioned to his own shoulder as a reference, opposing his limited description. "Snarky or possibly unconscious. She's also driving a white hybrid."

"I'm afraid I can't help you," he answered, slurring his word slightly, reaching down to scratch his crotch. "If you're looking for missing persons, you might want to try the sheriff."

"They're not missing. They're running and unfortunately for you – the cops can't help me in the instance."

"I'm afraid I can't help you," the man repeated, ignoring the look of cautioning in Damon's eyes.

"Wrong answer," Damon stated, abruptly yanking the man forward by his collar, his confused and fearful gaze clashing with Damon's unwavering one as he half-and-half lay strewn over the counter. "Now… again, green eyes, petite, white Toyota."

"A-A-A n-nine," he choked out, blunt nails digging into Damon's hand in hopes of lessening the strain.

"When did they check in?"

"Y-yesterday. Late evening."

 _Jackpot!_

"You won't remember this. You won't remember me. And if you hear any commotion down in section A or get any calls of any problems, don't bother the cops or with checking things out. Just stay away. It's your day off."

The manager nodded bit by bit as Damon once again set him on his feet. Damon dashed from the reception, leaving the confused man to momentarily wonder who he'd been talking to and if he was losing his mind.

"She's here," Damon announced, appearing at the driver-side window.

"Where?" Jeremy asked, a hand falling to the door, attempting to push on it to get out. Damon wouldn't budge.

"Section A," he explained, gesturing behind him and to the line of cars that littered the crescent parking lot.

"Then let's go," Jeremy restated.

"Lily and Enzo are on their way?"

"Yeah."

"Fine."

Damon stepped away from the door, allowing Jeremy get out and grab a weapon, something to defend himself against Kai. Damon headed straight for A9. He didn't see the white Toyota, but maybe Bonnie hid it? There was a Ford near the rooms they headed for, flanked by a Honda and a Dodge.

"What now?" Jeremy asked, running up behind him, keeping his oversized knife poised against his body.

"Firstly you might want to put that thing away. We're not looking to draw unwanted attention." Jeremy looked vexed, but complied, sliding it into his back pocket, pulling his shirt over it to conceal it. "And secondly… we wait."

"What? For what? Why?"

"Our distraction," Damon said without hesitation, wishing the kid would follow along and think of what they'd been doing all night. "Lily waylays Kai and we snag our Bennett and make a runner. Following?"

Jeremy nodded, straightened up and moved between the rows of rooms to search the back at Damon's instruction. He wanted to make sure there were no doors in the back and give Jeremy something to do.

Enzo and Lily appeared shortly thereafter.

"What's going on?" Enzo asked once they met up again. "Did you find them?"

"Seems that way," Damon stated.

Lily grinned, hopping out of the car to walk around the back. Enzo joined them.

"What's the plan?"

"You two go in first," Damon instructed. He knew it was cruel but it would throw Bonnie and before she knew what happened, he'd have knocked her out and dragged her ass back to the car.

"That's the plan?" Enzo asked, dubious. Lily, on the other hand, didn't care, she was already moving toward the parking lot, dashing toward Jeremy who started as she appeared at his side.

"It's the best I've got at the moment," Damon added.

"Best get to it then," Enzo replied, ghosting after Lily.

The vampires froze a foot from the door, straining their ears. A bawdy smile slowly took over Enzo's mouth as he turned to give Damon a slyly confiding look.

"Now, what do you know," he whispered, so quietly it could have been mouthing. "A morning-after shower."

Damon grimaced; Jeremy clenched his jaw and the knife in his hand, eager to burst in and—

And then Lily did, with Enzo dashing after.


	22. Chapter 22

_**A/N a.k.a Bonnie's Foreword:** **jummee** (Are you thinking sexual or getting to know each other moments? Kai and I are debating our understanding of that phrase! Either way, there are some moments coming up!), **JustStockton** (Your insight on Lily has given us reason to divulge into her some more and to flesh her out as much as we can without making her appear one dimensional. It's even inspired Kai's need to complete an old Defan one-shot. Dark, but we feel it would be a perfect complement for the plot holes in the actual show and explain a lot of the Salvatores' behaviors. Back to the Bonkai show! Bonnie isn't used to being passive in the face of trouble and I think that's where things are so crazy for her. She doesn't want to go back to that place where she can't feel and experienced nothing but loneliness. She knows what she is capable of in terms of her magic and she fears it more than she ever did. She's stuck trying to find that balance, to find that confidence in herself again without pushing herself too far and at the same time – the people around her push her into it and are keeping her from cowering in her normalcy like she craves to. It's all very unintentional—at least where some are concerned—but everyone's motives will come to a head.), **jordanjanellejoy** (Can you really have any kind of hearing while you're getting frisky? I would hope I have all his attention, but that's just me. Haha. Yeah, poor Steroline are having a rough go of it trying to keep everyone from crumbling around them, while simultaneously ignoring their own problems. They're the mom and dad of the group. As for the panic in relation to Damon's betrayal, Stefan is used to it. I think it's pretty much something he expects in every plan they concoct together. Jeremy, I think, after losing his sister, his aunt and his parents and dying so many times, has just had enough. He doesn't have it in him to pull anyone else up at the moment and is being very selfish. He just wants his own life now, he wants to—more than ever—break away from the heartache. He wants to be his own man. Kai hurts Bonnie out of necessity, not because he wants to. At least from what I have seen.), **Melika** (Yeah, Bonkai wasn't much in this chapter, but we needed to see what was going on with the rest of the crew.), **pennytree** (We're flattered you think so, especially since we're only three days into the actual AU season. Your reviews and rants are always welcome!), **itscalledkarma** (That was a call in the fire department moment. Too hot even for me! Haha.), **babyshan211** (Damon is Damon. He doesn't learn until he loses or someone dies. And even then its iffy.) **MystiBleu73 ** (Agreed. That finale was disappointing and felt like a waste of not only one amazing villain, but also an entire conglomerate of Bennett focus for next season. We're so glad you're enjoying the fic and that we can contribute to making up for tvd's mistake! :))_

 _Thank you everyone for taking the time to review!_

 _ **P.S.: Kai's humble input:** **Jummee** \- I thought I could pipe up here since this part about taking Bon's blood entertained me a bit, and I felt compelled to remind everyone that I'm a part vampire now, and blood is something I find I need to stay in shape. And surely, I'd rather have _ her _blood than anyone else's – I mean, tried that, didn't like it. I deem the process surprisingly intimate – intimate enough to hate having to be that close to anyone I don't know. I hate to have to resort to junk food. As for Bons, she seems to be doing her utmost to build a wall between herself and me. Which is annoying. Bon can be very annoying, but I consider myself patient and resourceful enough. We shall see._

 _ **JustStockton** \- That's so nice of you to note the gradual progression – Bon's pretty fixated on not letting me get closer than necessary, as far as I understand, and it can be frustrating, but at the same time, it's always more captivating when it takes work – a fine, filigree work, and that's exactly the treatment Bonsy demands. She's so damn stubborn in stuff she sacredly believes in – even it that stuff is total bullshit. If she were any easier to handle, I might get bored. I don't know. As for "projecting into my aims" – I'm excited you do that and pick up the hints I drop along the way (in words, gestures, actions, thoughts) to collect them into a fuller picture. Because I do leave some crumbs as I go, so watch out._

 ** _Thank you all for amazing words of encouragement you find for us, they mean a great deal._**

 _Also be so kind and take a look at Bonnie's new fic (if you haven't already), which she musters from all our bickering while playing online games, Arc's_ Neverwinter _in particular. You might like it. But don't tell her I sent you that way._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 22**

Bonnie drummed her hands upon the top of her thighs and watched Kai fiddle with the hose in the side mirror on the Ford, sinking deeper into her chair as he disappeared inside, lifting her bare feet onto the dash. She surveyed their surroundings and sat up straighter when she saw a phone booth. She peered behind to see where Kai was—if he was still busy inside—and slipped on her shoes, easing out of the car, being quick to cross the cement lot to the booth. She tried the door, exasperated to find it wouldn't budge. Bonnie slid her fingers through the small crack it made and shook it, trying to dislodge it from whatever was preventing it from opening, taking notice—after a cumbersome struggle—of a poorly printed OUT OF SERVICE sign taped to the inside.

Just my fucking luck, she thought to herself, kicking the bottom of the door. She needed to call Caroline. She must be frantic. Bonnie exhaled, started away from the phone, sliding back into the passenger seat.

The sound of the driver's door snapping closed startled Bonnie out of a deep reverie as Kai slipped back behind the wheel. Grinning, he dropped the bills on her lap and winked at her when she turned to gape.

"Three hundred dollars and a full tank," he estimated, turning the key in the ignition, and pulled from the gas station. "With the four hundred your friend manager's cash box provided, you're not doing so badly."

Her astonished look switched to a warning glare. Startled and equally aggravated, she quickly glanced over her shoulder. She couldn't see the cashier but assumed he was okay. Kai had fed, he wouldn't need any more blood – not for this moment in time. She opened her mouth to speak.

Kai gave her a listless look, imitating the Terminator, "He'll live." A jolly grin broke out on his face; he turned back to the road, settling back in his seat, left elbow on the window, right hand on six o'clock of the wheel. "And so will you – when you finally eat. Now, whatta ya say: some minor town or straight to Washington DC?"

She wasn't even sure where they were headed. She hadn't picked a destination.

"Just take me wherever," she said, giving him the go ahead to take control. "But find me a phone. A _working_ one. I need to call Caroline and check in before she decides to hunt us down or something." And also she had her mother to get a hold of, and Lucy, too. Or at least get a message to them.

"If there's anyone to hunt us down, my money's on Damon and his Mama. Your boyfriend might stick along."

Bonnie tried and failed to contain her trembling at the mention of Lily Salvatore. She was the reason they were in this car to begin with and driving the road to nowhere.

"Lily is too wrapped up in finding her heretics," she said with a confidence she didn't at all feel. Lily's grand showdown at the Boardinghouse, Bonnie feared, was only a taste of what was to come. "She's losing it. As for Jeremy, he has Alaric and college to get back to. He's going to be the next De Vinci." She flashed Kai a small smile, one that denoted a hint of pride in what Jeremy managed to accomplice for himself in her absence. He'd gotten out, he'd cleared himself a space and was making something of his life. He wasn't going to waste it. Not anymore and not like Bonnie had in the past.

Kai didn't really buy that story – Jeremy seemed too far from the Da Vinci kind – but decided it wasn't his business to share that opinion right away, or, maybe, ever.

"The moment Lily knows where to find me – she'll do anything to get there ASAP," he said. "Same for you – she would love to get her hands on both of us, for different purposes. So no, I don't think searching for them would keep her from searching for us for too long." Maybe Bonnie needed another stimuli to get scared. A frightened person can't think straight – if she did, his plans would probably go to waste. Kai couldn't allow it now that it was going along quite well.

What Bonnie didn't get about Kai was why he didn't give Lily what she wanted. Why'd he turn tabled on their deal? Why was he complicating his life unnecessarily? He'd accomplish what he wanted, he was scot-free. He didn't have to sit on this nest egg and put his life in danger by making new enemies. It made no sense and yet, Bonnie didn't bother to ask him – not wanting to hear any more of his ambiguous answers or _I'm not here to help you_ bullshit. That was his business. At least for now.

"Lily thinks I have some magical way of sniffing out her heretics," she said and smiled knowingly, giving him an observant look, as if to say _And I do_. "The upside we, I, have though, the ball that's in my court, is that she doesn't know you're alive. Therefore I've moved up a rank from liability to necessity. The only way she'll even know I am gone is if someone tells her. And my friends wouldn't betray me like that." Bonnie stated it with confidence, unreservedly believing that. Even Damon, for all his shit and the problems they were going through, they were far closer than either of them might even have thought they'd be a year ago. "For all their bullshit, for all our problems… they've never put me in the line of fire." _Not that I know of_.

"Say she drops by again to throw some furniture around," Kai said with a pensive squint, gazing at the road ahead and a battered Honda's butt that had been crawling in front of them for quite some time. "Are you absolutely sure Damon's gonna just sit back, drink and marvel? Or he'll be so pissed that you left with me he'll simply blurt it all out to save a few precious Ming vases and get rid of the rage eating him inside? You know, like popping a blister?"

"You don't know him like I do." And that yes, Damon was going to leave her to die—or better still, yes, he _did_ leave her. But she believed Damon when he said that wasn't his intention. That he wasn't trying to hurt her and had some heroic move in the works.

Kai would have rolled his eyes had the statement and those that followed irked him less.

"I… I trust him. I _trust_ him with my life. Damon knows how I feel about his mother and about what she's done or tried to do to me over the last week. I also know that he can be spiteful, that he can be selfish and if he wants something you won't give him – he can make you absolutely miserable. But he likes a personal hands-on touch in that department. He very rarely gets anyone else to do his dirty work. So for now, despite his rage and his boisterous complaining, we're safe. I'm safe." Who she had to worry about was Kai, Caroline and her compulsion failing her.

Kai thought it over, grinding his teeth. Damon was about to leave her to die when Kai snapped her back, and she trusted him with her life. Damon would trade her for Elena in a heartbeat, and she trusted him with her life, still. There was hardly anyone more volatile around her in that town, and she trusted him with her life.

Kai squelched the urge to bang her stupid head against the passenger's window and forced a simper. "Blessed are the faithful," he murmured, thinking: _until they crash and burn_.

* * *

There were loud noises of a scuffle and a woman's squeals before Lily reappeared from the shower, dragging a wet, naked girl by a handful of hair wrapped around her hand.

"This is not Bonnie Bennett!" Lily accused, thrusting her at Enzo. Her victim's lover had been rendered unconscious. "Nor is _that_ the young man I struck a deal with."

"You don't say," Damon said in a clipped and exasperated tone.

Lily dashed toward him like a battering ram, her hands fisted into the lapels of Damon's jacket as she slammed him into the opposite wall, knocking over the desk chair in the process. She was furious. Enzo acted at once and before things could escalate. He wrapped his arms around the older woman's slender waist, prying her off her son and put some space between them, ignoring the way she elbowed him and tried to get him to let go. Usually he wouldn't treat her this way, he wouldn't undermine her temper, but now was not the time for things to get messy. Damon, surprisingly, wasn't fighting her back and hadn't lifted a hand despite the look of contempt that flashed in his ice-blue eyes. Or was that hurt? He was practicing a restraint Enzo knew was unusual for his friend since Damon possessed a penchant for violent impulse, especially when attacked or backed into a corner.

Jeremy declined involving himself in the vampire drama and hurried into the bathroom to check on the guy inside. He yanked the towel off the bath rail, tossing it at the frightened woman as he did. She covered up, her lower lip blueish and quivering.

"It's going to be okay," Jeremy said reassuringly, slipping the knife into his back pocket, moving to check on the man's pulse and then on the large gash in the woman's neck. "Just keep applying pressure."

Damon remained mute and slipped out the room, passing by his mother. He had nothing to say to her, nothing to apologize about. Lily pushed away from Enzo, glaring at at his back, and took off to catch her breath. She needed space. Enzo followed her – remaining discreet, worried she'd crack if she went another day without her family. She was so close already, he could almost taste the senselessness and bloody carnage on her. Not that he cared to protect the populace, but he didn't want her losing herself. Not when he'd only just found her.

Damon scanned the parking lot, seeing no white hybrid. What if Bonnie hadn't come with her car? Did she even have a car anymore? She had been dead for a few months. He hadn't even thought of that aspect.

He dashed back inside, pausing in the open doorway, peering down at Jeremy who was trying, and failing, to get a good look of the bleeding wound on the stranger's neck.

"Heal her," Jeremy demanded.

Damon observed the stricken girl, taking in her dark locks and olive skin tone. From the back, he supposed, she resembled Bonnie in some mock way. Reason enough for his mother to go full-on raptor. It also guaranteed that he couldn't trust Lily. That he had made a mistake bringing her here.

"Damon," Jeremy snapped, cradling the girl against his chest the weaker she got. She was fading. Damon heaved a sigh as though he'd been asked to do a particularly laborious job. He bit into his wrist, squatting next to her, and lifted his bloodied arm to her mouth. She resisted, struggling against the two of them while Jeremy whispered reassurances in her ear, and then she started to suckle.

Now, the reason he had come back inside. Damon said: "I know you took it upon yourself to tend to Bonnie's personal effects after she died."

Jeremy frowned, raising his head to give Damon a 'where are you going with this' look.

"What did you do with her car?"

"The hybrid?"

"No, the Porsche," Damon barked as if Gilbert was an imbecile. And he was – at least in Damon's eyes. "Does she have another car?"

"Well, no—"

Damon jerked his wrist from the girl's mouth, hauling her out of Jeremy's arms, heedless as the towel slipped from her body. He forced her against the wall, a hand wrapped around her throat.

"Don't scream. Everything is all right. I'm not going to hurt you." She blinked a few times, registering the instruction and relaxed in his hostile grip. He wanted to make sure the compulsion really took hold; also, he just really liked the feel of her delicate throat in his hand. "You will remember nothing of what happened here as soon as we walk out of that door. All you remember is that you and your fuck buddy were getting too enthusiastic with your gyrations. You slipped on the wet tiles, he went tumbling and knocked his noggin."

The brunette blinked and nodded, her expression that of robotic detachment as Damon released her, his eyes unconsciously falling to her chest, taking a second to appreciate her pert breasts. She had a decent body.

Jeremy caught sight of Damon's observation and looked disgusted when the vampire finally turned to regard him again. Jeremy bent down to pick up the towel, extending it to the square of material to the woman a second time. She still looked confused as she took it.

Thankfully, her friend didn't take long to wake up, and when he did, Damon compelled him, too.

Ten minutes later they emerged from the room, letting the door click closed behind them, leaving the couple to stew in their newfound drama and to tend to each other's wounds.

"Why do you want to know about the car?" Jeremy asked at long last, as if he remembered they were talking about something important and needed to get back to it.

"I want to know what she was driving. I want to know if I've been looking out for the wrong thing all night."

"After Bonnie died, I took a handful of her possessions to her mother. She asked for them. Her car was one of them. Bonnie probably has it back by now, if, you know… Abbie didn't sell it or something."

"Bonnie hasn't spoken to her mother."

"What? Why?"

"Probably for the same reason she's fighting so hard. Why she's fleeing from my mother."

"Then why are we—"

"Because she was going about it the wrong way," Damon interjected before Jeremy could finish his question. "You know that. That's why _you're_ here."

Jeremy looked as though he wanted to defend himself, to prove he wasn't as invasive as Damon but he couldn't – not at this moment in time and not when he'd become an unwitting accomplice. Damon smirked and slid a hand into his pocket. He removed his phone and speed dialed Stefan. The phone hardly rang before it made a connection.

"I see you've forgiven me, brother," Damon smirked after he met open silence on the other end of the line.

"Not in this lifetime, jackass," Caroline's accustomed judgement rang out. He snorted.

"Where's Stefan?"

"What have you done with Bonnie? Did you find her? You touch so much as one hair on her head and I'll—"

"You'll what, Blondie?" he interjected, not even trying to mask his irascibility anymore. "The threats are redundant and unnecessary. I'm not trying to hurt her. I'm trying to help her. I'm the _only_ one trying to help her."

Caroline prepared to say something else (to curse, probably), when all of a sudden her voice became distant, a small struggle ensued, followed by another threat clearly meant for him and Stefan came onto the line. It seemed Damon was angering all the women in his life; then again, this one he deserved. He had stabbed her with shears and left her for dead. That was bound to make anyone a little bitter.

"Did you call just to rile Caroline up or is there an actual point?"

"You sound out of breath, brother. Mixing a little witch hunt with pleasure?"

Stefan sighed exasperatedly.

"Fine, fine—I can tell you're in a mood," Damon said, smiling slightly. "I called because… you were right. I shouldn't have involved our mother—"

"You didn't!" Stefan breathed in shock.

"I did. But see, here's the thing. I fucked up. I realize that now." Not really. What he realized was how to play on his brother's need to save everyone and how to get what he wanted. He had been doing it for decades. There was a sharp hoot in the background, another curse, and then it sounded like they were pulling over. "Are you driving? You know you shouldn't use your phone when you do that, don't you? There are laws."

"What's happened?" Stefan asked, ignoring his jibe.

"There was an altercation at the motel. Lily went in and attacked her, things got out of hand and… to cut things short, she's running… again. Kai stole her away and the worst part is, I don't know how or where or—"

"Then why are you calling me? Why aren't you looking for them?"

"Because it just occurred to me that I don't know what she's driving. That I've been chasing a ghost all night."

"That's because she took Zach's car," Caroline interrupted in the background with bubbly concern, her head clearly nearer the phone as she did and obviously directing that piece of information at Stefan. Damon hung up.

"Now what?" Jeremy asked.

"We find Mother and her British minder and head into town. I've a plan."

* * *

"Did the connection die?"

"Yeah," Stefan said, endeavoring to save his doubt for the call back. He pressed redial. It rang and rang and rang and then died. He sighed. Caroline snatched the phone back.

"Maybe his battery is flat," she supplied hopefully, trying to call him back a third time and going directly to voicemail. She frowned, a look that similarly matched Stefan's. They could sense they'd made a mistake.

"Check the app," Stefan instructed. Caroline pressed a few buttons, bringing up the Spouse Tracker app as she'd done since they started this trip. He'd installed it on Damon's phone after his return. Stefan wouldn't admit it, but there was a part of him that felt anxious about losing his brother again and needed to know where he was and what crazy thing he was getting into next. Not that he told Damon, of course, or anyone else for that matter—not even Caroline—he hadn't wanted her to worry, and also—they hadn't really been talking. She hated him then. It had been a dark period in his life but he'd eventually gotten over it and forgotten about it – until now.

"I don't see him anymore—"

Stefan took the phone from her to check for himself, his lips drawn into a grim line.

"Can you remember the last place he visited?"

"I think it was motel something—"

Stefan handed the phone back and turned on the engine.

"Cadillac motel," he concluded, remembering in a flash the name he'd seen.

"Right!" she beamed, her look of concern fading slightly. "Have you been there before?"

"Never," he responded, watching as she started tinkering with the phone again. This was one of the many other things he loved about her, he didn't have to tell her what he was thinking – she just knew.

"Give me a second, your phone's slow."

Stefan smiled as if to say 'no rush' and pulled onto the highway, taking it slow, giving her time to bring up the map and markers to point them in the right direction. They were still too close to Mystic Falls, not even half an hour into the trip after spending the night safe-guarding Tyler. One of many unforeseen obstacles that night. They'd left Alaric's after convincing him to let the nurse back in the apartment, after assuring him that it was the only way they'd leave him alone. They were on the way, following Damon to some memorial park when they got the call from Matt. Tyler broke free of their chains and made a runner. Stefan refused to let Caroline handle it alone. What if Tyler accidentally bit her? Klaus wasn't close by and Stefan didn't like putting her at risk. They returned to Mystic Falls, met up with Matt and spent the night hunting Tyler, when they found him—at long last—it had taken them a lot to get him down and had spent the rest of the night guarding him until morning. With the first stretch of light they were gone, back on the road and assured, by Tyler himself, that he wasn't at risk of turning again – not until next month. They'd felt helpless then, worried about their friends simultaneously, hating the fact that there wasn't enough of them to go around.

"It says to follow this road north," she explained at long last, zooming in on the directions as she read them. "To turn left onto James Madison and to make a U-Turn."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Stefan interjected as amiably as his stressed-out mood would allow. He was irritated with Damon. "Where are we now? Let's start there and go step for step."

Caroline looked around, searching for signs trying to figure out how close or far they were to what they needed. "I don't see anything useful yet."

Stefan said nothing, speeding up a bit, his eyes locked on the road ahead. Caroline turned on the radio, his phone settled between her closed thighs and were she could glimpse down at the information.

"He got what he wanted from me, didn't he?" she asked after a short while of silence, trying to see if his head was in the same place.

"It wasn't your fault. Damon does that. He played us."

"But what if—"

"It'll be okay," Stefan said, flashing her a soothing smile. "We're not too far and we know where they are."

"But what if they aren't there when we get there?"

"Then we work out a new plan and hope they're still close."

"I hate this," she said at random and after a lengthy—thoughtful—silence, sounding forlorn and like she wanted to cry. He didn't blame her. It had been an emotional week. Stefan didn't know what to say, didn't know how to make this right or to reassure her – he couldn't. "I hope she's okay."

"Me too," he answered, tightening his hold on the steering wheel, lowering his foot a little firmer on the accelerator. They feel into easy silence, drowning out the rest of their trip with the radio and the early morning top 40 hits.

* * *

Bonnie heard Kai in spite of his quiet tone. How could she not? They were squeezed into an old rust bucket with over one hundred and twenty thousand miles on the odometer. Obviously, Kai was skeptical. He had the right to be. She chose not to question it and instead focused on the road as they headed into Washington's central. And directly through it to Germantown. There were many restaurants, cafés and a colossal amount of Starbucks on almost every corner. The latter was the only one that appeared to be open at this early hour. Bonnie glanced at the digital watch in the middle of the cars dash, then at the neon yellow watch on her left wrist as if to confirm the time. It was almost eight AM. They wouldn't have too long a wait if they pulled over somewhere.

"Want to grab a coffee? They also serve a half-decent breakfast. I could do with a bacon, cheddar & egg sandwich." They might even have a phone she could use, or a pay phone nearby.

Kai scoffed a laugh, crawling in a long line of cars waiting to turn. "I have another treat for you in mind, Miss Bennett, so I suggest you sit back, relax and let me handle things to your pleasure. After all those happy meals you provided, it's the least I can do for you right away to keep you fit and perky. The better you feel, the better blood I get."

A few tedious traffic jams later, he pulled up at a The Levi's Store, tugged the key out, put it in his pocket as he half turned to Bonnie.

"Before I do, though, we gotta change. Not that you're wearing rags, but you can do a bit better, and you've money to do better, which means better's what we're gonna do." He smiled and jerked his chin towards the street in invitation for her to get out of the car, then stepped out and headed for the store's door.

After around half an hour, they were packed back in our car, driving through another jam that was about to loosen into a decent traffic trickle. It didn't take long, and around half past nine AM, they stepped out of the car to walk into 1789 Restaurant. Bonnie cast a wild glance at him Kai pretended to have missed as he held the door for her.

"We'll be having a private dining table," he told the host inside with a compulsion push. The host smiled and invited the youth to follow him.

The room he brought them to invoked both classic and kitsch thoughts, but looked good enough for Bonnie who seemed mesmerized enough to wear an unregistered smile when she let the host hold the chair for her as she settled. Barely a moment after he left, a waitress brought them menus and a wine card.

"Now, that's a nice way to live," Kai noted, perusing the items in search of anything he would want to eat. "I might yet come to like that hybrid swag. So, maybe I can forgo saying aloud the obvious, but I guess I'll say it, nonetheless."

Bonnie picked up her menu and opened it, trying to remember the last time she'd seen the inside of a dining hall with such affluent furnishings and such _absurd_ prices. The Lockwood mansion had come in at the closest. She grimaced and looked up, meeting Kai's eyes with reluctance. She had turned a blind eye to their shopping spree, it wasn't needed—not by her—but it was fun, but this—these prices seemed astronomical, surely someone would miss it in currency.

Kai caught her eyes and winked with a vain smile spreading over his mouth. "Forget the money, baby. You can have anything you want."


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N a.k.a Bonnie's foreword:** **Le1a Naberr1e ** (I am not so sure something that drastic is necessary but we'll have to see how the story progresses.), **itscalledkarma** (And you may be right in your assumptions. They are cutesy), **jordanjanellejoy** (Attack now and ask later is Damon's go-to MO. Nor does he learn. He'll have to eventually, though. The hard way.), **JustStockton** (Persistent terminator from the gilded age? I love that, best description of a quality I once found annoying. Haha!), **Jummee** (Of course this is a Bonkai fic. It's about Bonnie & Kai and them dealing with their respective issues after a particularly traumatizing time, how they'll go on dealing with one another and those around them. At least that is in essence the gist of what is going on. If you mean romantically, well… I guess, we'll just have to wait and see.), **Melika** (Haha! We apologize for the update delay but life has been hectic and busy the last few days so we've been tied up.), **babyshan211** (Let's hope Steroline has polished their white knight saddles!), **bonkaiaddict** (Your praise is far too kind and appreciated. We love that you're enjoying it so much and taking this journey with us. We can only hope we continue to live up to your expectations as we continue.), **SasukeandSakuraluvha** (Hope you enjoy the next update!), **Guest** (Tongue sucking? Well there is something to think about. *wink wink*), **Melika** (We're getting there. Promise.)

Thank you everyone for taking the time to leave such insightful commentary!

* * *

 **CHAPTER 23**

Kai caught her eyes and winked with a vain smile spreading over his mouth. "Forget the money, baby. You can have anything you want."

"Seven hundred bucks. Total," Bonnie reminded, flashing him a light smile as she steered her gaze back to the neatly printed menu open in front of her. She didn't know what they were doing or if they'd reached some kind of truce for now, but whatever it was, she decided – around the same time she let him get her these shapely boot cut jeans – that she'd give it a go. That she'd quit resisting as long as it didn't lead to blood. "That's almost half the price of a dessert," she teased, flipping another page to check and compare.

Kai watched her, smiling and waiting.

Once she got to the desserts, her expression slacked into a light disappointment mixed with surprise. "Or not," she admitted. Ten dollars for a campfire sundae and everything else.

The waitress returned to their table, settling an assortment of parmesan, garlic and breadsticks in the middle. Bonnie loved those miniature butters. "Are you still deciding?" the waitress asked as Bonnie set the menu down and reached for one of the butters to peel it open. The young witch looked up at her and smiled. "Can I get either of you something to drink?"

"I'll just have a coffee, two sugars and a lot of milk," Bonnie said.

She nodded and then regarded Kai.

"We'll also have a bottle of this," he said, pointing at Côte Rôtie 'Château d'Ampuis' in the wine card. She smiled a wide one as she glimpsed the price and approved with a nod as she penciled it down before leaving them alone once more.

Bonnie reached for a butter knife, side plate and a piece of a bread. "Did you call ahead or something? Because from what I can see on the menu, these people don't exactly do breakfast, do they? Unless they consider—" she glanced down at the open menu to read off the list, "—Lamb bacon lardons and rainbow Swiss chard to be breakfast food." She didn't even know what a chard or lardons was.

"Breakfast food is anything you wanna eat when you wake up, isn't it? So, that's what you need to choose." Kai spread his hands in a short voila gesture, and sat back.

Bonnie took a supporting bite of her bread at his showy gesture and set down the blunt knife. She wasn't even going to attempt addressing the wine. It was ten in the morning, God only knew what they thought about their early patrons in the back.

"And your money don't matter when you have a vampire with you, am I right?" he continued.

Bonnie heeded his point with a chuckle. She wondered, if she were a vampire – would she misuse her ability to compel people? She wondered if her mother did it, if she'd gotten over never being able to use magic again and craving blood. Could Bonnie?

"No, I didn't call in advance because I had no idea where we'd end up in five minutes, let alone a few hours. Everything's too spontaneous when you're around and your friends are not."

Bonnie took a large bite of her slice, dusting her fingertips upon the provided napkin, a strip of cloth she pulled into her lap and laid over the top of her denim-clad thighs to protect them from her ineptness. She wasn't the best eater. She scrutinized Kai for a silent minute. He thought she was unpredictable? She almost loathed to tell him that it wasn't on purpose, that things came to her out of the blue and that she rarely did anything without planning it first. At least when it came to her social life. The rest, well, that was a mystery on its own. Windfall she was trying to avoid.

The waitress came back with beverages. She put Bonnie's coffee before her, then opened the bottle of red, poured them each half a glass, and set the wine on the table in a bucket of ice.

Kai caught her eyes and pushed with compulsion: "Give the young lady your cell phone, then forget you did it and remember only that you've lost it earlier and need a new one ASAP."

The waitress gave a slow, pensive nod, did as she was told, and walked out. Bonnie stared at the device in her open palm, bringing it to her chest and out of sight so no one else could catch on. None of the staff that could peek in the room at any given moment, that was.

Kai picked up his glass, raised it in a mute salute, and sipped. "Mm, it's good. You should drink yours – red's good for your blood."

"We can't just take her phone," she said, lifting the napkin to sneak the device beneath it, easing it between her thighs for safekeeping. "What if she has a sickly mother or she uses it for banking or something."

Kai made no reply, sipping wine with a faint inscrutable smile on his face, thinking it was hardly worth it to repeat it to her that the waitress would get herself another phone and restore all she needed.

Bonnie renounced her coffee as the first to taste and reached for the wine he'd selected. She brought it to her nose and sniffed the contents, swirled it around and around gently as she'd seen chefs do—it was supposed to help with the taste as far as she could remember—and then took a sip.

"Mm," she murmured, breathing through her nose softly in support of his review, setting it down once more. She busied herself with the item in her lap and raised both the napkin and the phone onto the table, taking a second to accommodate herself with the unfamiliar device. Thankfully, she wasn't too inept when it came to technology and didn't struggle for too long. She found the sms function in no time and typed a message to Caroline, letting her know she no longer had a phone, that she'd dropped it and that it shattered into a million pieces. She wasn't going to tell her Kai disintegrated it. Bonnie also told her blonde friend that she was moving on again, that she was okay and that no one needed to worry. That the phone she was using wasn't hers and that Caroline shouldn't bother calling. She would call her as soon as she could. Bonnie quickly added her number to the top of the message, made sure it sent, and then slipped it back into her lap.

"Here," she said once the waitress returned to take their food order, extending the cell toward her, smiling. "You uh… you must have dropped this."

The waitress – STACY according to her nametag – broke into a smile of happy surprise. "Thanks! I don't know what I would have done if I'd lost it." She hardly thought of how it had fallen out of her apron and returned it to its safe spot. "Are you two ready to eat? Would you like to hear the specials?"

"Are we?" Bonnie asked, purposely casting a glance at Kai, trying to gauge what he'd thought of what she'd done and if he had anything else planned.

She waited for him to either counteract her amiable gesture or throw another trick, it seemed. Kai did neither and smiled. "I'll have loin of lamb, and you could list your specials to the young Miss if she would be so inclined."

Bonnie smiled, satisfied that she hadn't stolen the woman's phone. She didn't need her conscience smudged any more than it already was. "I know what I want." She glanced down, tapping at the name. "I'll take the hanger steak." Not that she understood most of what came with it, but what did it matter? Steak and wine at 10 AM? She was living a little more exuberantly. "Medium rare," she added before the waitress asked how she liked it.

Bonnie offered her the menu; she took it and then waited for Kai to hand his over—or keep it – before darting off to place their orders. Bonnie watched her go and sat back, reaching for her wine glass, taking a bigger sip this time, really letting it work its magic and warm her cheeks.

Bonnie welcomed herself to a bigger sip of wine, really tasting it now. Kai saw a tinge of color shining through on her cheeks. It made her prettier, as if they were on vacation and having breakfast after honeymoon kind of night. He caught himself in time before his mind strayed to wonder whether he would like that, and cut it off.

"So," Bonnie began, knowing that her next line of questioning would probably dredge up more resentment and ruin their little shindig, yet she was hopeful that it wouldn't. She didn't want messy. "I know you said you watched _me_ – us – for months in nineteen ninety-four before you made your grand entrance. But I'm curious, how did you even know we were there? How did you happen upon Mystic Falls? Did we come in like a glowing ball of flame? A shooting star? Or was it just a coincidence? Fate?" She was curious, in some way, to know why they had met and how, of all places, her grams thought that the prison world would be her best bet. She had to have known he was there, she'd coughed up her blood and aided in its creation. Or maybe it was another family member? Bonnie's mother, perhaps? Bonnie guessed she would never really know.

"Well, one fine morning of the same freakin day, I woke up to your bickering. Later that day I found out it was some crappy little village called Mystic Falls."

She tilted her head slightly as if to say 'you're kidding me'. He had to be. He wasn't a witch. Well, he was—but he didn't have the power and it was not like the place had a supernatural security alarm to alert you of intruders.

Kai sipped his wine, enjoying the look on her face, then allowed himself a slow gotcha smile. "Curiosity killed the cat, you know that one? Aw, don't pout. Frankly, I deem you smart enough to deduce at least a part of this one on your own if it bugs you so much. Cheers." He winked and had another sip.

"It's not that it bugs me," she answered as soon as he gave her the room to do so, drawing her coffee nearer, picking up the teaspoon to stir it and make sure the sugar wasn't sitting at the bottom of the cup, and then added the milk. "We're getting to know one another, aren't we? That's why we're here? I mean, at least partially."

Else, why would he bother going through the effort of taking her to a clothing store to get jimmied up for a fancy restaurant? Why not just stick to some passable diner a couple miles outside of Washington? Or was he a closet snob beneath those sneakers, shorts and tee-shirts she'd first seen him in? Was this all for his pleasure? She guessed that was part of it, too.

Kai smiled, saying nothing, for nothing was better than 'I don't care to let you know me, and I know you well enough already.'

"As for the cat… I've got at least another four lives in me," she teased, ignoring the fear that thought alone stemmed in her. She shouldn't be here – not if they were being realistic. "Besides, you spent eighteen years in that hell hole – alone. You mean to tell me you just sat them out? That after all your attempts and explorations you just kind of hollowed out?" She didn't believe it. He didn't seem the type, not like her, not like she might have been if she had to add an actual seventeen years to her own sentence.

Kai's smile dimmed a tad as he recalled the foggy state he had been retreating to more often in the end of that journey than in its beginning. None of which he cared to reassess.

"You know what, you're right," she said. "That's depressing. Why don't we talk about something mundane? Like books. I'm guessing you read? A lot?"

She didn't know why she was bothering to talk so much, why she didn't want to sit and stare at him in silence. She guessed it was so she could dismiss the fact that only yesterday she was cleaning up a murder, that she didn't know what was to come later in the day or how to go about getting a message to her family. Bonnie didn't know her mother's number out of her head. And was she still living at her holiday house? Bonnie doubted it. She never really told her daughter where she'd gone once she left her—they never got the chance to talk about it.

Kai observed her with interest, sipping his wine, trying to decipher the reason behind her sudden bubbliness. It was unlike the recent Bonnie with her introversive tendencies inspired by her friends' attitude and flailing self-esteem.

"You're so unstable, Bons," he shared with an introspective squint. "Have you thought about it? Lack of stability in your inner world undermines your power – which you and I have already established. And without a stable power you can rely on, you can't do anything not just for those you mean to save, but for yourself, either. And even four lives ain't forty-four."

"And how do you imagine I would go about fixing that? How should I reestablish stability in my life?" she asked. He'd been the one to bring up the top of conversation, it was only fair he be the one to figure it out. She picked up her coffee, tentatively wrapping her hands around it to warm them, and brought it to her lips to taste.

Kai gave a smile as if she had said something endearing. "It's not about how stable your life is, Bonnie. It's about how stable you – and your power – can be in any kind of situation your life will toss you. And it requires training, self-control, self-confidence, and so on and so forth. It requires desire to be the best version of yourself you can be, whatever it takes. Do you have that?" He refilled their glasses.

She stared at him over the rim of her coffee mug, watching as he refilled her wine glass. She didn't know how to even go about answering that, how to address it or to even understand where it came from. She lowered her cup from her mouth, keeping a hold of it.

"Is this your way of saying you want to teach me magic? To prepare me for the unknown and the big 'mama Salvatore' sized bad?" she asked, trying to understand what had prompted this line of questioning and the sudden pep talk.

Kai laughed and shook his head in amusement.

She raised the mug to her lips when he started laughing, turning a blind eye to the splash of heat that took a hold of her cheeks.

"I was merely pointing out the obvious in the light of your searching for a subject to mull over. And to teach you – why and what would I teach you? It's not like I'm much of a charitable guy – I have been once upon a time and look how that turned out for me: stranded in a prison world full of starved vampires. So, this time, what'd be in it for me, right?"

Bonnie fought the impulse to glance down at a spot on the table, to busy herself with another slice of bread while they waited for their breakfast-supper. She should have known better than to play along to begin with, to think that with a new day came a different, more assured understanding. He was _still_ her soon-to-be redeemed hostage.

Kai gave another small laugh as if that was the joke in itself, and looked over at Stacy who brought their food, steaming and aromatic.

She set the dishes down, wished them bon appetite with a sunny smile, and left.

"Mm, I guess I've been missing normal food, let alone that delicious." Kai started to unwrap the utensils from the napkin.

He'd already removed the spark from whatever Bonnie was trying to do. She picked up her knife and fork, studying her food, eyeing the sickly looking white thing on her plate. It looked like mushrooms – not the type she'd seen before.

"Dig in, Bons, you do need the best sustenance we can get you, and this gotta be the best." He sunk his fork and knife into the meat and cut a piece.

Bonnie renounced asking if she'd been downgraded from near-to-dead witch bitch to a prized pig, an appetizer he needed to plump up and spice. She was beginning to feel that way. Like grade-A meat.

 _Or maybe it's just my foul mood kicking in again._

"Did you know the President dined here with that German lady… Merkel, is it? So I figured, if it's good enough for them, it's gotta be okay for Bonster." He dealt her a radiant smile and sent the meat into his mouth, chewing.

She lazily stabbed her steak and eyed his wide and overly friendly smile, making no attempt to return it this time.

"Oh, that's really good."

She glanced down and concentrated on her own meal, cutting herself a large enough portion so that she wouldn't be expected to answer or come up with some witty retort or expected defense. Bonnie wasn't in the mood. She was done talking for now, done trying to be cute or good-natured. _At least for now._ She stuffed the square of meat into her mouth, leaving no space between each bite for anymore conversation or even an answer. It wasn't scrambled egg, muffins or some crisply fried rasher of bacon - it was better.

After his teasing Bonnie seemed as if someone popped her enthusiasm and mood balloon, and now it lay at her feet, a lifeless torn rubber rag. She only got a little light back in her eyes when Stacy returned to ask if everything was fine with the food and if we needed anything.

Bonnie nodded, mouth full, and gave her a thumbs up. The second time Stacy returned to the table it was to ask if they needed any more refreshments.

"I'll take another coffee," Bonnie said, setting her utensils together, using the napkin to dab at her mouth before handing it all over to Stacy and watching her walk it back to the kitchen. "I'm going to go freshen up." The witch eased out from her chair. "Ask her for the menu again. I'd err… I'd like to check the dessert." She might as well take advantage of the situation while she could.

She stood and swept a hand along the sides of her jeans, tugging them down and back into position, automatically checking her shirt for any stray sauce stains as she made her way for the bathroom.

Kai watched her go, feeling the annoyance bubbling like a pot of boiling water forgotten on the stove. It flabbergasted him how she, being as clueless and undecided about her own plans, managed to elude the paths he had been paving before her feet. Well, not that she eluded every single one, but the one that mattered seemed to make her wary, like a young nervous horse that's seeing something questionable lying on the road ahead.

Kai sucked in a deep breath and had a swallow of wine. _It's okay, Bonnie, we'll get you on the right track. If it were easy, it wouldn't be half as interesting, anyway._ He smiled to that thought and sipped.

* * *

Bonnie made quick use of the toilet and then spent a little time in front of the bathroom mirror. She washed her hands, rinsed her face and mulled over what he'd said before.

'It's not about how stable your life is, Bonnie. It's about how stable you – and your power – can be in any kind of situation your life will toss you. And it requires training, self-control, self-confidence, and so on and so forth.'

She didn't know where to start. She used to be confident with her magic use—a little too confident—and now, she didn't want to push it, didn't want to depend on it in the same way she had in the past. It couldn't save her, and more often than not, it cost her more than she could ever dream or cared to lose. And this time, the reason they were putting distance between themselves and Virginia was because she thought that maybe, if she ran fast and far enough, Lily would forget about her—they'd forget about her—and she'd be safe this time round. Bonnie would never admit it, nor did she care to say it aloud. But as good as it felt being back home, being with her family, it wasn't easy and nor did she feel ready to just step back into her former role again. She needed this time. She needed this clarity.

But where were they going? Where was she taking Kai? She needed to work that out.

She threw away the paper towels she used to dry her hands and face and exited the bathroom. She made her way back to the table, still at a loss of how to address what he'd said or what to say even now.

* * *

When Bonnie returned from the ladies' room, her menu sat open on her side of the table, next to coffee, and Kai was perusing his lazily.

"This restaurant was one of the places I visited on my prison world tour," he said, skimming the list of desserts with a meditative expression.

She looked up from what she was doing, eyeing him thoughtfully.

"Of course, then I had to be the Chef, the staff and the customer, all in one. And when I sat eating the lamb I'd cooked, I decided that if or when I got out, I'd come to the real one – to see how it looked with people in it, alive. To celebrate my freedom and ground myself in the realization that I wasn't in prison anymore, that it wasn't some kind of a sick dream pushed by my brain to keep me in the illusion of normality long after it was lost." He hemmed a quiet laugh that sounded like a small exhale with a faint curve of his mouth.

Bonnie started at the realization of how personal the piece of information he'd chosen to share with her was, his soft laugh and the faint curve of his mouth appearing more wretched than contemptuous. She even sympathized.

"I think it the hardest part: deciphering between illusions and reality and wondering whether the one you're in right now is real. Maybe once you experience that kind of confusion, it never truly leaves. Always looming behind you, waiting for the perfect moment for its tentative touch."

She could relate. She had been back in the land of the present living for over two weeks and she still was not convinced she was truly back. It was a nightmare Bonnie was waiting to wake up from at any moment.

"I thought I was over it, and then I was back in the land of nightmares, and not alone this time." He was eyeing her closely. "I know you're sorry. So was I. But what you and I really remember is that we weren't sorry when we dealt the stabs. So, does it really matter if we're sorry when the damage's already done?"

He made a damned good point, she noted. The damage was done, on both scores, and as much as they wanted to—he in the past, and she now—far too much had taken place for it to just scab over and be forgotten. And he had eighteen years of solitude, insanity and resentment to work on.

Kai swirled the remaining wine in his glass. "Maybe not everything that's broken can be mended."

Bonnie smiled then, glad for the kinship and understanding—even if she were a part of the problem. She felt lighter somehow, like that dark sweltering cloud that had encompassed her was able to lift slowly.

Kai emptied the glass, put it on the table, and flashed her a boyish smile that was the farthest from the things he had said moments ago. "So, picked yourself a dessert yet?"

She studied him a moment. He was a strange creature, but a surprisingly laidback one at that. Under different circumstances, if their past wasn't riddled with such ugliness, she could have liked him. He was far easier to talk to than most.

She reached for her wine, downing the glass, paying no mind to the buzz that instantly overcame her. "Something with vanilla. Or caramel… or…. I guess—" She set the glass down, flipped open the menu and scanned it quickly, not taking too long to decide on what she craved next. "Almond Crème Brûlée. What about yourself?" She scanned the shortlist once more, a light amused smile playing in the corners of her mouth. "I don't see jam here. Though this choice of three sounds good—"

"We're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy, of course there's no jam." He read the description and nodded. "Yeah, let it be Choice of Three, why not."

He poured the remaining wine into their glasses and raised his in an amiable salute before taking a sip.

Bonnie quickly relayed their orders when Stacy showed face in their room, and picked up her freshly filled glass of wine, drink that was starting to taste better and better with each glass. Bonnie had to laugh. And did so softly while they toasted their newfound dessert choice, or perhaps some indefinable understanding. She finished that glass off, too, enjoying the buzz. She couldn't remember the last time she'd cared to be drunk. And she wasn't talking about her nineteen-ninety-four disaster—she didn't even like to think on that. Bonnie set the empty glass aside, reached for her coffee and enjoyed the background music. She even sang along quietly, relaxing once the dessert showed up and making quick work of tucking into it.

As they attacked the desserts, Kai was amused to see how tipsy Bonnie had become. The wine was starting to kick in more once the last glass was finished. The smile came freer to her face, and healthy blush gleamed on her cheeks. For this moment, she seemed happy.

"Mm," she praised appreciatively, leaving a little of her crème brulee in the bowl. She pushed it over to his side of the table for his inspection. "It's good, you should try some." And why not? He came here to taste and test their food – to give life to his eighteen-year-old fantasy.

He returned her smile and shifted their bowls around, then did as she said. It was truly a nice cherry on top of their breakfast.

When finally their check landed on the table between them, and a small wrinkle appeared between Bonnie's eyebrows, Kai told her to produce a hundred dollar bill. She cast an incredulous look at him, but did.

"As neat as compulsion may be, I still prefer magic," he said, and held a hand over the bill. "Phasmatos exprimo."

For a moment, the hundred seemed less than real, and then an image of another one started to come into focus next to it. Once in full shape and color, it gave way to another one to gain matter from thin air upon it, then another. It stopped as soon as Kai took his hand away, leaving a pile of a dozen hundred dollar bills. He smiled when she looked at him, and made a here-you-go gesture. An arc of a faint, glimmering rainbow showed itself before Bonnie, one of its ends resting on the pile of money, then slowly faded away.

"Your pot of gold, Miss Bennett."


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N a.k.a Bonnie's foreword:** **itscalledkarma** (Kai's biggest problem is that he isn't seeing a therapist or dealing with his difficulties. He's taking them out on me and the world, without even considering the consequences of his actions, then again, I doubt he ever has.), **Melika** (We're glad that you liked the chapter and looking as forward to getting back into the swing of things again. We've missed the gang), **jordanjanellejoy** (I couldn't agree with you more, although I would correct your statement and say that he is the 'BIGGEST' shit. Haha. Yes, we did see that emotional scene. It was brilliant. I hate that it was cut from the actual episode as it really gave you a perspective of where his head was at. Kai killing Jo at the end of the season, however much I hated it, makes sense to me now. He lost it. He was already dysfunctional, but Bonnie well and truly broke him with her betrayal.), **babyshan211** (Apparently it is. Or so he tells me, but I don't truly know what to believe on the making cash from thin-air thing. We'll have to see. And yeah, that was fun to write! I like those moments, then again, the might be the booze talking. *wink wink*), **Guest** (We're on it!), **Night250** (We've a long way to go, but we're getting there. I hope. I'm not so sure I want to keep him as an enemy. Not anymore. Thank you for the compliment!), **pennytree** (You're so right about his mental state. He isn't facing anything he's done or gone through in the past week. All he can think is revenge and tiding his time screwing with me. It'll catch up to him eventually, but for now, things are still new and exciting and he hasn't thought to stop and think about a thing. I hope I eventually get through to him, that I can crack that shell and win his trust again, since that is my aim. But will he let me?), **Guest 2** (We haven't forgotten about the fic. Not at all. We love it as much. But things have been a little busy our side of the world so we've been wrapped up. I love that you're enjoying Baroline/Steroline, I've a yen for them as well and look forward to their future interactions. If there are any to date, who knows what will happen with Kai at this point, maybe he'll just drop me off a bridge somewhere and be done with it.), **Guest 3/Chapter 1** (We're flattered that you think that of our fic and appreciate the time you took to say so.), and before I forget… a very special thanks to **malachaibennett** on tumblr and twitter for being so generous with her enthusiasm and reviews.

We apologize for the delay in our updates as of late, life has been hectic. Enjoy the new update!

* * *

 **CHAPTER 24**

Bonnie's smile widened a tad when he accepted her dessert offering. They were steadily bridging a gap. It felt good. Or maybe that was what the wine and pleasant tingles that spread throughout her body wanted her to think.

She reached into her pocket at his request and after they'd checked the total on the slip, removing a hundred dollar bill with a small, almost stingy enthusiasm. She set the note down in front of him.

"As neat as compulsion may be, I still prefer magic," he said, waving a hand over the note. "Phasmatos exprimo."

Bonnie watched for a moment as another bill materialized beside the original, followed by another and another and another. How the hell was he able to do that? Was it even real?

"Your pot of gold, Miss Bennett," he said once he'd figured they had enough or he'd grown tired. She smiled in response to the added effect of color that glimmered over it, accentuating his concluding statement.

"You're like a magical leprechaun," she deliberated with appreciation, a wide smile on her lips. She wasn't accustomed to using magic for superficialities. It was all doom and gloom. "Only taller."

"Have you seen that leprechaun movie?" Kai scoffed. "You're damn lucky to have me around instead of that little creep. Besides, he'd never in a million years give you a coin from that pot of his."

She reached for the money, gathering it together, feeling the ends and the paper as though she expected it to disintegrate within her examining hands. "Is it real?" she asked in spite of the dense texture. It seemed impossible. "Or does it have an expiration date? Or is a simple eye of the beholder deal?" She knew some magic had a time limit and that like compulsion—some magic's could be used to make people see certain things when they looked at items.

Smiling like a parent would at a child displaying wonder at something mundane that she deems a miracle, Kai gently pulled a few bills from her grip, tucked them into the leather folder with the check, and placed it on the edge of the table for Stacy to pick up. "You're asking too many unnecessary questions, Bon. Sometimes all you gotta do is just accept the miracle and the fact that it happened to you."

Easy for him to say. All magic she knew came with consequences or nosebleeds and here he was materializing money from nothing but clean air, as if it were a party favor. He didn't even look winded.

A few tables were occupied when they walked across the room for the exit. The host and Stacy heartily wished them a good day.

Bonnie smiled at their waitress on the way out, granting her with a passing thank you in response to her earnest farewell. She stepped outside, a smile still fixed to her lips as she peered up at the sun and the bright blue sky. She shielded her eyes for a moment, feeling a little lightheaded and bouncy as she walked to the car. She wanted to skip, to dance, go swimming – she just wanted to do! She slid into the passenger seat, turned on the radio and sat back in her chair, watching the scenery go by as they drove, hardly paying attention to where they were or where they'd stopped.

The only other stop Kai made on his own accord was at a tech store. Bonnie sat it out, and when he slipped back, he put a box with a new iPhone and a package with a SIM card contract on her lap.

"It's registered for Bonnie Parker," he said, and laughed at the look she gave him. "Bonnie Elizabeth Parker – the one with Clyde."

She chuckled lightly and nodded, accepting his explanation as she ripped at the packaging, dumping the plastic and other bits at her feet to throw away later and once they stopped somewhere else.

He keyed the engine and looked at her inquiringly. "Where to?"

"Just drive," she said, raising a hand from the box to gesture to the open road. "Just keep going forward and we'll see where the road takes us." Bonnie had nowhere in particular she planned or even needed to be – however, she did need to make a stop with her family, but without Kai. She didn't trust he wouldn't use them to leverage her, to get back at her for his pain, and for right now all she wanted was to keep them as safe and as far away from her drama as possible.

Kai pulled from the curb and aligned their car with the road's traffic, unable to shake surprise and wariness. It was too spontaneous, too reckless for the Bonnie he knew, and it could mean different things. She was drunk and acting on it – not thinking at all or too lazy to think while she was tipsy. Or she harbored some ideas she didn't feel like telling him. And that was setting the tiny alarm ticking inside his skull.

"Maybe we can find another pub on the way?" she added. He smirked.

"I see drinking in the morning sits well with you even in the real world. But as attractive as it is to surf through pubs all day, it's still too early for those." The dashboard stated it was a little over one PM.

Too early? Bonnie scoffed and mumbled a cursory, "Says the guy who ordered a bottle of wine for breakfast." She was in the mood to party now, to do something fun and out of the ordinary. The wine had completely eradicated the anxiety that related to being back, to being hunted in her mind and everything in between.

"Maybe we can make it a pub in another city? Say, a night of fun in Manhattan? Or cocktails on Florida beach?"

She grinned as if he'd announced she'd won the lottery. She took the phone from the box, inspecting it, searching for a way to remove the back cover and the battery. "I like where your head is at." She could already imagine it. "And I like the sound of the beach. Cocktails, too."

Bonnie smiled encouragingly and turned up the radio a bit more to sing along with the tune that caught her attention, idly checking out the scenery as they made their way out of town and she busied herself with setting up the phone. It wasn't long before the device was up and running and she was adding Caroline's number to the contact list.

Kai couldn't help amusement at her readiness to party the day – or a week – away without a care in the world. As she got busy with her phone, fumbling with the charge cord and the lighter slot in the dashboard, he considered what he could do with that sudden change of attitude.

"Oh, and… before I forget," she said, turning down the radio and then off, waving the phone in his direction slightly. "Thank you. I enjoyed breakfast. The phone's a particularly sweet touch, too."

Kai smiled slyly in return. "It's not too hard to impress you, is it? But it's okay, we'll work on putting your plank higher before the day ends."

Bonnie gave the smallest of shrug in response, still smiling. She was happy doing something out of the norm, just living life before she got sucked into the ill expectations wrapped around her magic. Yesterday being example of that. She wanted to ask where they were going once she realized they were no longer headed out of town but deeper into Washington. The mischief written on his face told her not to bother.

He had to park farther than he wanted – despite the decent hour, it was already impossible to find a spot around the Capitol.

He flowed into traffic and spent fifteen minutes finding parking. He got out without a word and she didn't hesitate to follow, a small smile forming on her lips once she realized where they were. She'd come here once with her father, a long time ago, back when she actually joined him on his business trips and enjoyed it.

They neared the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool stretching from it, a liquid sun glaring from it amidst the specks of blue.

"From what I gathered, you don't get out much – or didn't. Anywho, it would be rather stupid to leave without bringing you here, in the heart of our country, wouldn't you say? And I've been many things, but not stupid." His arm made a slow arc of a wave, like that of a host, towards the Capitol. "Thus, Bonnie Bennett, I present to you the National Mall and a sunny day to enjoy whatever you find interesting in here. If anything." Hands in pockets, Kai observed her with a smile.

"You're not plotting to break into the White House, are you?" she asked, looking serious, a twinkle of amusement in her eye.

"I've done it before, so it wouldn't be the same," he said with a jibing smile.

She chuckled softly, easing past him to get a good look of what was going on. "Oh!"

She gestured he follow, swiftly heading for a Segway tour to their left. They were just gathering, going through the small training session. Better than walking right? Had Kai even driven one of these things before? She doubted it. Mystic Falls didn't have this kind of entertainment and nor did she assume he had much time to indulge in everything just yet.

"Could we get on this?" Bonnie asked after a lady greeted her.

"It's seventy-five dollars. Three hours."

Bonnie reached into her pocket, unperturbed by the sum of money now that he'd presented her with a small pot of gold. She handed over the two hundred dollars and pocketed the change.

"Here," she said once the tour guide handed her two helmets, tossing Kai one. "Safety first."

"Yeah, sure, of all people in this city, I need it most." He put the silly thing on, nonetheless, and off they went.

Bonnie chuckled and pulled on her own helmet before heading to claim a machine. The instructor gave them a speedy lowdown on how to break and steer and then they were on their way. She listened and relived one of her happier memories of her father in relative peace, enjoying the waning buzz produced by the wine and the fresh air. Kai didn't even seem to mind. He seemed—at least from her perspective—to be going with the flow.

Despite his reservations about having other people around, having to listen to the guide's yammering, and the tourists talking and snapping pictures, it was a sort of relaxing experience for Kai, in all. Bonnie seemed really happy, even more so than after the breakfast and playing with her new phone. The wine had started to wear off long before the tour ended, and yet her mood didn't fall. And, for a bit, Kai could mimic her and put their baggage aside to just be in the present moment that seemed to be a scene from the life movie of Kai Parker he hardly ever had any chance to be or become, with no magic or secrets or stress. Just a day of human life. It did taste weirdly sweet, melancholic, even.

"So itching to make him get up and greet everyone and walk down the stairs to stroll through the Mall," he whispered in Bonnie's ear when their group was marveling at the statue in Lincoln Memorial.

"So close to the White House?" she asked, leaning in to conspiringly whisper with him, making sure none of the other people around them would pick up on their conversation. Although, she too—and in spite of his tongue-in-cheek commentary—was tempted. Another time, another life and another conscience. "I'm not sure we'd make it for those cocktails if we did that."

And she was itching for them. Still floating, but feeling a tad more down to earth. She'd be sober soon.

Kai smiled, liking that 'we' part she inserted, as if she was viewing them as accomplices, working on the same side, together. That was saying a lot about how she had picked up the crumbs he left for her on the way he wanted her to take. It seemed to be working at last. Could be alcohol, but he doubted it was just that.

"Who'd catch us red-handed?" he argued quietly, entertained. "It's magic, no one can pin it on us. Besides, we'd act just as scared and shocked as he'd take off his chair and head for the White House to resume his previous position as the National Leader. Who knows, our country might've changed to better if he did."

With the good that Obama was doing? All the changes he was steadily taking to make their country better? Unless another Bush made it into the presidency chair, Bonnie didn't think it was necessary. She laughed, imagining the bedlam that would ensue from something that _playful_ and who the _people_ would blame next.

"Have you had enough? Want to take a faster look around? I'll race you," she said, assuming the guide would be too busy with his through explanation to care if they went off book. She turned the Segway around, leaving him little room to one up her and crept away slowly, breaking away from the small pack.

Kai could only see her back, but he could bet his life she was grinning.

He followed, and then they were racing along the paths of the Mall, passing the museums, peeking in some, and stopping to snatch some ice cream or soda.

"Let me at least do the Rex," Kai mock begged her when they got into the National Museum of Natural History and ogled the T-Rex's skeleton in the beginning of their tour. "Come on, everybody saw the movies, it'd be fun!"


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N a.k.a Bonnie's foreword:** ****(There is nothing better than writing happy Bonnie. She deserves lighthearted no-strings attached or life hanging in the balance type of fun), **Night250** (Closer? How intimate are we talking? *wink wink* And yeah, Kai has a twisted sense of humor.), **Melika** (It was short. Even I complain. *chuckles* I wish we could get to things faster, spit them out at the rate we were before but life's hectic and probably won't be getting any easier with the approaching holidays. But have no fear, we adore this story and will try to keep our updates regular. As for s7 and the rumors, yeah, I'm not down for what's to come with Bonnie in the relationship department, not after having such a teasing taste of Bonkai. It's going to be hard to outdo their potential.), **Guest** (We couldn't be happier to hear that!), **jordanjanellejoy** (Bonnie Sheila Bennett-Parker, huh? That's a mouthful. Haha. Don't let Kai hear you say that, he might get ideas and adopt to make it even more uncomfortable.), **JustStockton** (Bonkaifunday should be a daily event, the only event from here on out. I had far too much fun with it too!), **itscalledkarma** (If only it could stay that way, Bonnie trapped in fun. Now there would have been a prison world to write home about.)

Thanks once again for all your lovely reviews, we love hearing from you guys and hope you enjoy the next update!

* * *

 **CHAPTER 25**

"Let me at least do the Rex," he said once they started up the stairs and into the national museum. It was the one place they'd chosen to do by foot. And the last on their list. "Come on, everybody saw the movies, it'd be fun!"

"Fine," Bonnie answered once they reached the top, the bony structure looming before them in all his prehistoric glory, far larger than she remembered it being when she was a kid. She flashed him a grin to let him know she wasn't kidding. "But no one gets hurt," ahe stipulated in a conspiring whisper, making sure he wouldn't overstep the boundaries of the last few hours. "And be _gentle_. It's old."

She broke away from him, heading for the information board at the bottom of the bones to read up on its history—to refresh what she already knew. The place was busy, even for a weekday.

Kai watched her back as she strode away towards the show glass with information, wondering if she was daring him or simply didn't believe a second that he would pull this off. He wasn't sure which one was more insulting or exciting.

A boy about nine years old stood by the show glass next to his dad who was eagerly reading aloud, peppering it with Get this, get this!, while the boy himself was making faces and sneakily tapping at the oversized glowing screen of his cell phone. His back was strategically turned to his excited father to cover the phone and pretend he was gaping at the bones while dad got the educational part covered. A group of a dozen Japanese chipped something in return to their guides' tale, flashing their cameras and grinning as they posed at the feet of the dead bones collection. A few loners and two couples strolled slowly around the hall, reading info tablets and gazing at the items.

There came a rattling sound, one you get if you shake a bag with dominoes. No one knew where it was coming from, and few heard at first. The Japanese middle-aged couple posing at the T-Rex did; their smiles slipped off slowly as they observed the guy that was about to take their picture. His face turned into a caricature of their favorite anime characters in a moment of fright: his face got paler, his eyes grew unnaturally wide along with the mouth where high-pitched wheezes were coming from.

One of the museum managers, a sturdy woman of forty-something, happened upon the room at that moment, and now stood gaping and making a sound that was somewhere between squealing and yelling, as if undecided which way to tilt.

The rattling sound got louder, adding a few squeals the connections between the bones gave when the skeleton started to move as though stretching its legs and tail to shake off the long-time stiffness. It shook its big head a little like a dog fresh from a pond, raised it up and gave a startling, screeching roar every fan of Jurassic Park knew so well. That dropped the museum manager down, fainted.

The kid with the cell phone tore his eyes from the screen at once, gaped, then broke into a genuine grin, whispering, "Cool!" His dad wasn't going to back him up on that – his face white and childlike with fear as he scooped his offspring into his arms, backing away in jerks like a spooked crab. The other few observers in the back screamed, a few broke into a run, the others kept standing, unbelieving there is anything that could go wrong in a public place in America that was a magic- and all UFO shit-free. Everybody knows that!

Bonnie dragged her gaze from the fine print and looked up when the bony rattling started above her head. She didn't know whether to smile or grimace. She should have expected it – should have known Kai would accept her tongue-in-cheek challenge. She backed away from the T-Rex as it stretched, awakening like faceless puppy with enormous teeth, expelling a roar so loud and ferocious that she involuntarily lifted her hands to her ears. How was he even capable of doing things like that? How could he effortlessly just fix and destroy all at once?

The T-Rex waved his tail and stepped off the pedestal, observing the squealing Japanese group and the crabwalking dad with his kid in the scoop with its empty sockets and eternal grin. It strolled between them, claws clacking loudly against the waxed floor, and turned to Bonnie who froze at the show glass, wide-eyed.

The Japanese realized the monster wasn't after them, and started clicking their cameras, flashes blinking, imprinting the gigantic skeleton shadow upon the viewers in the vicinity like a magical cage.

Bonnie took another step back, mimicking the T-Rex's advancement and winced as someone ran into her, nearly knocking her off her feet in their haste to escape. Bad, bad idea!

She looked back in search of Kai, briefly losing him in the chaos, and watched in awe as the skinless frame stomped across the marble floors, a perfect mimic of the graceful and predatory creature it had once been.

It was headed directly for her now, overlooking the people around and the enthusiastic photographers. Bonnie fought the urge to run. Instinct, she supposed.

The skeleton canted its head left and right, like an inquisitive dog, observing the girl. She smiled softly, a measure of joy that faded when something hard barreled into her side and knocked her off her feet. She grunted as her body collided with the floor, wincing as pain radiated through her left elbow and knee. The man might have been a hero—her assumed savior—but vampire finesse he did not have. A few astonished gasps broke over the small Japanese crowd as the heroic American dad made a diving jump, sweeping Bonnie in the flight and landing a couple of feet away from the show glass.

"Wow!" his son commented, aiming his cell at dad's heroism, then back at the dinosaur that seemed amused, his tail waggling lazily.

"Run! Run now," the father ordered Bonnie, trying to get up and beckoning his son at the same time. "Come on, Justin!"

Justin would have none of his dad's bullshit. He forgot himself, filming the wonder on his phone, grinning like a kid who got the present of his life from Santa personally. The Rex clacked his claws towards him, its head inquisitively low as though to sniff the boy.

Bonnie drew her gaze from the two, frightened that Kai might get some twisted idea and have the thing attempt to eat the child. She could never tell which way he'd go and if he'd take it too far. It was already beyond repair.

His dad gave a yell of a gorilla and lounged to fit between his son and the monster, but the monster's tail caught him around the waist and sent him flying under another installation. His son paid little mind.

Kai approached Bonnie from behind, wrapped an arm around her waist. "I think we better make ourselves scarce now before cops or SWAT arrive."

"You couldn't have kept him on the podium?" she asked, rubbing at her elbow for emphasis before enclosing a hand over his wrist.

"Would you stay on the podium you've been stuck on for years when you could walk around and stretch a bit?"

It didn't seem like a good idea from the common sense perspective to leave the T-Rex to its own devices until the magic in it ran out (Kai had no idea when that would be – in a few minutes or hours), but from his point of view it wasn't bad. Bonnie, in her overexcited and tipsy mind, seemed to be missing the cleaning-up part, which was okay with him.

She jerked him toward the entrance and into a jog, easily assuming the role of frightened and skittish museum-goer fleeing an impossible dinosaur attack. It wasn't hard—not for either of them as no one was paying attention to anything or anyone else. T-Rex had the floor.

They circled around the museum to get their Segways. There was another roar behind their backs as they hurried along the Mall. More people headed to where they were fleeing from, attracted by the sounds and hoping for fun. Kai wondered if that was what they were going to find there.

Enough was enough – the joke had reached it pinnacle point. "Would you stop that already," Bonnie chided once they reached the side of the building and approached our Segways. She reached for her helmet, inspecting it for bird poop. "How are you even able to keep controlling it from here?"

"Well, I could, but I don't. Not anymore."

Bonnie stopped toying with the straps of the helmet and gave Kai a contemplative look. He had to be kidding.

Kai weighed the helmet in his hand, not in the mood to put the stupid thing on, then hung it by its strap on the Segway steer. "The magic soaking it will evaporate sometime soon, and he'll be dead relic again, but for the moment Mr. Bones is on his own. I'm not sure what's driving him now… maybe his memory – you know, it's stored in his bones even if they're dead for ages. Information never truly disappears, like any form of energy."

"What are you saying?" she snapped, setting the helmet back on the Segway, ignoring it as it pelted off on the other side and rolled to the ground. She couldn't care about the deposit now. "Are you saying that thing is alive? That you went above playing puppet master and gave it life?"

Kai observed her with a smile both sheepish and wicked. Inside the museum, the screams grew louder and more alarmed. Glass was breaking, people stomping as they ran, the Bones' claws clicking against the floors as it tried to pick which human ant to pursue.

All the blood drained from Bonnie's face, her ears settled on the noise in the distance. Was it just her or were the screams getting louder? More terrified.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" she shook her head disbelievingly as she backtracked away from him, running back toward the museum, but then the reason of the havoc emerged from its former prison, threw back its head and gave another roar of triumph.

Some people screamed, some took pictures. Children pointed, parents grabbed them tighter and retreated as rapidly as they could. The Rex directed itself to the nearest ice cream tent – the terrified dealer was sprinting across the lawn with some other visitors – and sent it flipping over onto the grass with a push of the side of its head. The screams drew its attention back to the living things around, and it started towards the closest group aiming their iPhones at it.

Bonnie gawked at the skinless creature in horror as it broke free of the museum, scattering glass and screaming people in every direction, a few dawdling just long enough to take blurred pictures and videos alike.

'Run you idiots!' she wanted to scream. She instead tried to focus, to conjure up a spell to render the beastie useless without drawing too much attention to herself. She didn't want this to turn into some big x-men reveal and spend the rest of her days living in a sewer running from the government or the equivalent of SHIELD. She cringed as the faceless creature sent the ice-cream stand sailing and turned its ferocious care on the populace again. Her heart hammered in her chest, growing to deafening proportions as she absorbed the scene before her. It was unreal. Bonnie raised an impulsive hand to the air, aiming to send the lethal animal reeling and those bones sprinkling in the wind like leaves when all of a sudden a hand clamped around her elevated arm to deter her. She gasped.

Kai pulled her against him. "Come on, Bonsy, it's too good to be a puppet. Didn't you ever want to see one in its natural glory? I mean, yeah, it's bony, but it's real. And it's free, even if for just a bit. It's finally free, and you, the compassionate one, want me to kill it again?"

She struggled against his censured hold, bringing her heel down upon the top of his foot repeatedly, elbowing him for emphasis and until he'd released her. She put space between them as soon as she was free, glaring at him.

"This isn't some perverse metaphor you can use to relate to your life, Kai!" she hissed crossly, picking up on the miniscule undertones and similarities. She wasn't even sure it was intentional on his part. "These are innocent people!"

Kai looked at the T-Rex; up from its hinder legs, it started to gain flesh, like in a computer 3D simulation. Sinews, muscles, skin covered the aged bones within seconds. People gaped as it approached, forgetting to run for a few dangerous moments. The Rex itself felt a change and gave another roar, sending the closest humans scattering and celebrating its newly gained power.

Bonnie shook her head with disgust and turned back to the creature, her eyes widening as flesh sprouted from bone like a well-watered plant and grew to cover every square inch of its oversized body. It gave another roar, an animalistic sound that made her blood turn cold. She shook off her shock and raised a hand again, directing it at the animal, keeping it from being able to move before muttering, "Illucescente!"

Its neck snapped—much like she craved to do to Kai—and went down, landing without grace in the middle of the enormous courtyard.

Kai pulled Bonnie to him once again, restraining her arms gently with his hands, her back pressing into his front. "Did no one ever tell you that simple thing? You cannot kill something that's already dead."

The dinosaur picked itself up with effort – having no normal front legs to help must suck, Kai thought – and cast a bird-like gander around, in search of a prey.

Bonnie glowered as the briefly unconscious dinosaur stirred and tried to stand up, wriggling like a fish out of water, his tailing swishing to and fro wildly, his teeth gnashing at the air. It was back on his clawed feet far too quick for her liking.

"No one is innocent, Bons," Kai said into her ear. "But if you wanna restore the world's balance, you can do it easily – we both know it. This is not a living creature – not in the way you perceive it. It thinks it is, but in fact, it's like that Energizer bunny from the ads. The power I gave it is the battery. You can't pull it out, but you can use it and deplete it in the process. You can channel nature and its power – you can do the same with this lizard. Go ahead." He released her and stepped back, curious whether alcohol in her blood would enhance or cripple her execution.

Bonnie exhaled as his arm fell away from her waist and he took a step back. She raised her hand, neglectful of being seen, and immobilized the creature before it could think to charge or bend down to snack on someone close by.

No one else appeared to notice.

She could feel a hallow pain build behind her eyes, an onset from either the alcohol she'd consumed for breakfast or the strength of the magic that bound the creature. She couldn't tell. She gritted her teeth, walking the T-Rex away from the ground like a dog on a leash, driving him toward an open expanse of grass away from people.

How long would this magic last and who would win? She or it?

Bonnie made no response and tried to restrain her emotional turmoil to focus. Kai could sense his skin prick with goosebumps as she collected herself and held a hand out, connecting to the energy driving the T-Rex. She was straining – due to all the factors like alcohol in her blood and emotions running rampant – but she got a lock-on and the T-Rex froze, then started to move where she directed.

"Put him back on his pedestal and pull the battery out," Kai said into her ear, leaning in from behind. "You can do it, we both know you can."

Bonnie inhaled as if she'd absorbed a little strength from the creature, and towed him from the grass, ignoring his noisy animalistic sounds of objection and the way his thick nails raked the earth, leaving thick furrows in the soil. She guided him across the cement, past the flashing camera lights, away from the destruction of the ice-cream tent and back up the array of stairs. She trailed after him, being careful, gentle even, trying to avoid the people still standing around in wonder, too stupid to even consider the danger they were in and that what was happening was unnatural. Still, no one got in her way, no one even looked at her, and it was as if they didn't see her at all.

The dinosaur raised its head and roared, a rigorous disturbance that no longer held ferocity but distress, as if it could sense that things were inches away from drawing to close on its untimely chapter.

Bonnie could even allow herself to feel a hint of guilt.

"Recedemus," she commanded, ignoring the animal's startling growl of pain as flesh smelted off the bone, followed by the muscle and other finer tissues, outwardly dismantling it the same way it'd been created.

Though Kai let Bonnie handle it herself just as he intended, he could sense her straining as she tried to tame the power animating the T-Rex. It wasn't her usual exercise in channeling energy, he reckoned, and having been drinking before didn't help, either. His nerves tingled as he watched her at work, like some wonder-girl from a superhero movie that suddenly came to live around him. It excited him that she never gave up, and it excited him to see she managed – even though he had little doubts she would, he was prepared to lend a hand, even if a secret one.

Before long, it was back on his pedestal, lifeless and held together by an assortment of different ropes and doohickeys to make sure it didn't fall apart again. The only indicator that it'd even moved, that there had even been a disturbance was the video clips on a few random phones, the trussed up lobby and bad mow job outside. But at least no one was seriously injured or dead. Bonnie lowered her arm, feeling a touch lightheaded once done and a semblance of pain building behind her eyes. Could nothing be easy?

"Let's go," she said, assuming Kai was close by or at least within hearing range. "Getting out of here is going to be worse than getting in." People fleeing, cars riding into one another in their attempts at escape, humans where at their worst amidst chaos.

Some gawkers followed the dinosaur from outside and were now snapping shots and talking. The Museum's workers gathered in another part of the room, consulting with each other. No one minded the witches.

Kai stepped closer to her in case her legs betrayed her, and observed the aged skeleton on the pedestal it had been lucky to leave for some half an hour. A faint smile twitched in the corners of his mouth.

"Wow, Bonnie, you open up from quite a new perspective. With your sky-high morals and compassion that could make a maniac cry, you have just tortured a dinosaur out of his skin, literally! Who knew you had it in you! I mean, I suspected there had to be a quirk like that hiding beneath all layers of good and kindness – there always is with a power like yours flowing through one's system – but making a giant predator scream in pain while peeling its skin and tissues off? And draining it of life? God, that's…" Kai looked at her with fascination that could easily be mistaken for morbid rapture. "That's scary. In a weirdly hot way."

Bonnie faltered a tad, taking a moment to consider what she'd done to that animal at its insistence. It hadn't been the T-Rex's fault it was revivified, yet there hadn't been time to convey a less painful method of shutting it down. She threw Kai a sidelong look, shuddering softly. She didn't like the way Kai was looking at her in light of the creature's torture or the fact that he appeared pleased with it. His insinuation frightened her.

"I did what I had to do to keep that thing from hurting anyone else," she retorted defensively, bending to lift her helmet off the ground once they'd reached their abandoned Segways again. She toyed with the strap and eased the silly thing back on her head, securing it under her chin. "There is nothing _underlining_ about that."

She narrowed her eyes as if to silently dare him to prove her otherwise, hardly giving him the time as she moved to reclaim her ride. Bonnie checked for the key and started it up, steadily making her way back to the car. People were still running, car horns honking like crazy in the distance and the nearer they got to the parking lot.

"Of course there is," Kai disagreed. "Whatever the way you picked to deal with him, you gained all the power that was left there to drain. See, no blood's coming from your nose."

She gave him a look and impulsively lifted a hand to her nose. She was almost expecting blood to appear, to prove both him and her wrong and split her head open like a ripe melon. That was the way of her luck.

"Oh, and I kept you cloaked while you were playing dinosaur exorcist, so there'll be no YouTube videos of Bennett the Wonder Woman saving Washington form Jurassic Park invasion. You're welcome." He started rolling along the Mall's pavement to where they left the Ford.

She blinked after him as he started rolling his way toward the car, speeding up to ride side by side.

"Thank you," she said in spite of the fact that everything they'd dealt with in the last hour was his fault. He took her challenge far too literally. She was going to have to watch what she said. "I mean… for err… shielding me."

She left it at that, unsurprised to find that once they reached the cordoned-off station for the Segways, there was no one there to receive them. She bounced off the machine, removed the helmet, and headed for the car.

"Any idea how you're going to get us out of here before the sunsets?" she said once they'd both climbed into the car. There was an accident in the middle of the lot, two people yelling at each other, others paying no mind to anyone else trying to gun for the exit.

"Piece of cake."

Kai revived the engine, put his hands on the steering wheel, and closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, concentrating. Then he threw Bonnie an impish grin, and jump-started from the spot, tires squealing. The road was packed with vehicles stuck flank to flank and nose to butt like sardines in a can, and they went through them as though the panorama around them was no more than a ghostly vision. Or perhaps in this scenario it was them who had become ghosts in the middle of the living people's drama. Soon enough, the noises died out behind them as they neared the outskirts of the city, already obeying the traffic rules. Kai tightened his fingers on the wheel, grounding himself as he felt a trifle dizzy. The cloaked jump had taken its toll. He wasn't going to have a nose-bleed, but he could feel weakness crawl in like a shy snake and coil in his solar plexus morphing into hunger.

"Any new destination in mind yet, Miss Tamer-of-Dragons?"


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N a.k.a Bonnie's foreword:** **jordanjanellejoy** (Yes, yes he did. And you know why? Because he freaking can. He has too much power to know what to do with it. Haha! Glad you enjoyed it!), **itscalledkarma** (I wouldn't say it was terrible, even if at the time and I was worrying that we were going to have a tenth sequel of Jurassic park and it was going to be all bloody carnage), **JustStockton** (He is the worst… alright, not the worst, but the most out there teacher she's ever had. Silas/Shane has nothing on Kai.), **Night250** (Dark Bonnie is certainly there, itching to crawl her way out from beneath the anxiety, indecision and fear for her life. If Lily and Damon would give her room to breathe.), **Jummee** (Very short. And yeah, you won't see much growth as it's only been like four days. Still too much happening. It's still about impulse, about figuring each other out and how to go from there.) **London. Chase** (We love that you love the story. *wink wink* As for Kai being able to walk in the sunlight during the day, well… he's more witch than vampire and since he is constantly siphoning magic from himself, I would assume that that's the thing that helps him. *at least that was my assumption*. There is nothing nicer than hearing you love the story so much that you're able to be absorbed into it. Now we know our job *or hobby* is done! Haha. As for Bonnie and her love interest. *deep sigh* Could have been better.), **Melika** (He's the biggest jerk! ;) ), **YoCupcake** (Of course we'll be continuing it. We're too invested not to.) and **Guest** (Enjoy the update!)

Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We truly, deeply appreciate it. xo

* * *

 **CHAPTER 26**

"Piece of cake," he said as he threw open the passenger door. Bonnie arched a brow, a lopsided smile curving onto her lips. The congestion ahead of them was tight and she doubted they'd be able to leave their parking spot in the next hour to come. People didn't do well with panic, nor did they think when their lives were on the line.

Kai revived the engine and closed his eyes. Bonnie didn't return his impish grin, frowning slightly, and jerked in her seat as they leaped forward and straight into the crowd of cars and yelling people. She wanted to scream, to put on her seatbelt and close her eyes, but she didn't, far too enthralled by what he'd done and how quickly he'd managed to remove them from the chaos. She knew he was powerful, she knew he was capable of far more than she'd ever dreamed – he grew up in that life, after all, he'd studied magic, spells and various other things while she was scratching the surface on her own. She didn't even dare regard anything Shane had taught her as something she needed to revisit. She was to start from scratch.

"Any new destination in mind yet, Miss Tamer-of-Dragons?" he asked once they were back on the road, away from traffic and following the road out of town.

"Let's drive until we hit the open road and then we'll pull over and decide." She reached for the phone he'd bought her earlier, checking to make sure it was okay and charged enough, and toyed with the idea of calling Caroline.

Kai felt a faint nudge of irritation rooted in the aftermath of the spell he had endured. "We're already driving. Start deciding."

"I don't have a place in mind yet," she snapped back. "I wasn't exactly expecting to leave that motel so soon." She needed time to think, to breathe, and perhaps have another drink. "Let's just find a place and stop for a while. There must be a diner or something along this road."

Kai couldn't help a spike of annoyance. She'd had more than half a day since they left the abovementioned motel, and she was still stalling, undecided on what she wanted and why. He wasn't sure why it irked him – since he wasn't really having a bad time himself – but somehow it did. He ascribed it to the wariness after the spell and her moodiness. She lacked the sense of direction, and it annoyed her, too, turning the fun girl he knew she could be into a party-pooper.

Bonnie decided she could wait a little longer and forewent making the phone call as the atmosphere in the car was too tense. They'd gone from happy sunshine partners in crime to sulky sullies. She toyed with the new device, brought up the web browser and searched the internet for another motel or nearby hotel in the next big city. She needed to figure out where they'd be the safest. Where she would be the safest. Among people? In light of Kai's Jurassic remake, she wasn't so sure, although if he stuck to feeding on just her, then it would be okay. But what if they had another misunderstanding? Bonnie closed her eyes and craved another drink or three. The only positive to come out of all of this was that Lily didn't know her way around modern stateliness and wouldn't show up on Bonnie's doorstep uninvited. Not that she would need an invite if she did. Hotels, motels and resorts were all public areas.

Kai made no response and kept driving until they went out of the city limits and saw the first roadhouse flanking the highway. He parked between two trucks, one of them shielding the Ford in its vast shadow from the sun that was inclining towards the horizon.

He accompanied Bonnie inside and to the table she picked.

As they settled, he regarded her grim face. "Not the best place for cocktails, I admit, but staying in Washington wasn't the best direction for tonight – not after the Night at the Museum incident. So we'll fix you with good drinks once we hit the next civilized spot of your choosing, princess."

"Beer will do for now," she said without looking at the menu that had been placed in front of her. She was still full and in spite of their adventure, she hadn't worked up an appetite yet. "And maybe an oversized milkshake."

Kai smiled at the contrast of her desires. She didn't seem sure she wanted anything at all.

The waitress caught the tail end of their discussion once she returned to table, coffee pot in hand. "Can I get you two anything?"

"Just a milkshake. Vanilla," Bonnie said before she could ask about the flavor.

The waitress nodded in acknowledgement and turned to Kai. He shook his head and she went away. Bonnie removed her phone from her pocket, scanning the few links she'd bookmarked.

"There is a motel in Monroeville three hours away that doesn't sound too bad. It's cheap, too," she began before he could think to ask her if she'd made up her mind yet.

He restrained a scoff, a small simper touching his lips. Why she would still care about money was beyond him.

"We'll stay there for tonight."

"Or we could drive on to a next big city and enjoy the level of comfort you really deserve. Or are you a trucker-diner-motel-roaddust girl while I thought you were born for luxury?"

"Is that your way of saying you didn't sleep comfortably last night?" she retorted, ignoring his jibe, aware that the evidence poking into her backside this morning stated otherwise. Bonnie didn't wait for his answer and leaned her forearms on the table in front of her to talk with him conspiringly. "As cool as your money-grows-on-trees thing is… after your reincarnation act with big T and the blatant attention that is bound to sprout, it might be better to do away with your temptations and stick to my low trucker-diner-motel-roaddust girl routine."

He narrowed his eyes at her, reprimanding, and clicked his tongue. "So uptight! If you weren't so scared of having fun and stepped outside your little box of fear and limitations for a bit, it wouldn't be such a disaster as you saw it."

"Uptight?" she murmured. There really had to be something deeply wrong with him if he thought she was being too restrictive after their roarsome floor show. That wasn't fun and games, nor was the impromptu cremation the night before.

"Besides, if you think keeping me from big cities would tame my desire to entertain myself, you've got another thing coming." He gave her a grin of wicked mirth to force his point. "It doesn't have to be a struggle for you. Just loosen up a bit. It'll do you good."

The waitress returned with a milkshake, put it before Bonnie and left after making sure Kai didn't change his mind about ordering a drink or snack.

Bonnie reached for the straw, ripping the paper off each end, and shredded it, mulling over what he said. "And what is fun to you? Dinosaurs potentially ripping off people's heads? Nibbling on some random stranger? Leaving another on the side of the road to bleed out? Please, define the _fun_ I'm supposed to be having."

Kai tipped his head slightly to one side, eyeing her with a faint inscrutable smile, wondering if she really needed him to answer that question. She did _want_ him to – sure – as well as she wanted him to do all the things for her she could have done herself before. But did she _need_ him to? He didn't think so.

The afternoon had been good, Bonnie decided, the Segways, the museum, their brief race and even their wino breakfast. For a moment–if not a few hours–it permitted her the chance to forget why they were even on the road. "Just how much looser are you expecting me to get?"

"Well," he drawled, smiling wider. "Let's say, as looser as you need to get to stop being so damn grumpy most of the time. Despite all the problems weighing on your mind every so often, your life right this moment ain't so bad – just as soon as you let yourself realize it. Come on," he waved an encouraging hand at her, leaning back in his chair, and folded his arms. "I'll wait."

Wasn't so bad? Was Kai kidding? How could he and Damon dismiss the bad as if they hadn't been on the verge of turning a group of innocent museum goers' day from bad to worse only a few short hours ago? There might have been a hint of damage control amidst their prehistoric chaos and no one got seriously injured—that she knew of—but the what-if of the entire situation hung in the air like a bad odor that assassinated her buzz. It was stupid and Bonnie was far stupider for even encouraging the challenge to begin with.

She slipped her straw into her milkshake and took a sip without answering him, letting him stew in his provocative declaration. No matter how much they tried to convince her what they did didn't matter, the more she knew it was bullshit. She had tried to let loose this morning, to have a good time, and someway the museum stint reminded her she was way in over her head with Kai and that she couldn't afford to flounder with her indecision for too long. Not unless she planned on playing witness to another massacre. Bonnie took two deep sips of the milkshake, subtly checked for her phone, and stood.

"I'm going to use the restroom," she said, keeping to herself the fact that she intended to call Caroline at the same time. "I'll be right back—don't uh…" she trailed off, confident he'd understand her unvoiced implication as she gestured around at the patrons eating, drinking and chatting with one another. "I won't be long and then we'll go."

Kai waved a dismissive hand. "Whatever you say, Boss. Don't do anything I wouldn't do out there." he tipped her a bawdy wink and saw her off, his smile slipping off gradually as she walked away. She was probably going to call her blondie friend, and he wasn't sure if they could afford it at this point. If her friends would try to interfere, there might be casualties among them by his hand, and it wasn't the best way to steer Bonnie where he needed her to go. However, keeping off the radar was something Kai did well. Perhaps there was no harm in that little call. Time would tell.

He paid the bill like the good boy his witch wanted him to be and waited for her to get back to her melting shake.

* * *

Bonnie eased into the narrow hallway, squeezing past a man exiting the nearest restroom, falling in line behind a chubby woman with fair skin, plaited blonde hair and a mile-a-minute mouth. She was conversing with another whom Bonnie couldn't see, and from the sounds of things, was rinsing and drying her hands. Bonnie waited until the two were finished and smiled as they brushed past her a minute later, uttering an apology for blockading the door so rudely.

"No problem," Bonnie murmured in passing, briefly meeting their eyes as she disappeared inside, the door swinging closed behind her. Luckily, she found herself alone and the two stalls empty.

She checked the counter for water, removing her phone from her pocket, and eased herself onto it. She looked her reflection over in the mirror, taking note of the evident bags under her eyes. Then again, maybe the poor fluorescent lighting was playing tricks on her? She didn't care to mull it over, didn't care to give into her ego. She dialed Caroline's number, praying that all was in order while it rang in her ear and that the contract Kai had set up for her would work.

"Bonnie?" Caroline's distinguishable voice asked as the line opened up. Bonnie guess she hadn't been getting many calls and was waiting for her witch friend to fulfil her promise.

"It's me," Bonnie confirmed, aware that the blonde had probably been stressing.

"Oh thank God!"

"I'm sorry I couldn't call earlier but things have—"

"A-Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Caroline interrupted before she could think to justify her actions. Bonnie sensed Caroline hadn't expected to hear from her at all and that she must have been imaging the worst.

"Hurt? No, I'm fine," Bonnie said with a small apologetic laugh, feeling guilty for not having called her sooner. As much fun as she'd had this morning—at least while it lasted—that had been selfish. "I'm whole. In one piece."

She heard Caroline give a short-lived sigh of relief and relay to Stefan that she was okay as if he didn't possess vampire hearing.

"Where are you?" Caroline pressed, sounding desperate and out of breath as if she feared they'd lose connection.

"At a roadside diner outside of Washington DC," Bonnie said, figuring she was far away enough to not worry about her appearing on her Bonnie's doorstep. Care deserves a little peace of mind.

"And where is Kai?"

"Waiting for me inside. Probably aggravating the poor waitress with one of his many off-center jokes."

"Bonnie, what's going on? I thought you were holed up, that he was tied up or—"

"I didn't get that far. I suspect he isn't all that juiced to play the part of probable prisoner again."

"You mean he's free?!" Caroline's voice raising a few octaves to accentuate her surprise. Had she missed Bonnie's mention of the waitress?

"Well, yeah… I guess you could say that. He hasn't left and he isn't feeding on anyone else." Not today, she refrained from adding, feeling her wavering buzz plummet. She didn't want to think about yesterday's drama.

"Bonnie—" Caroline began, spinning from the news, uncertain of what to make of any of it or how to proceed.

"It's okay, Caroline," she said, not at all feeling that way but not wanting to give her anymore reason to hassle. Bonnie wasn't even going to mention the dinosaur crisis. "There was two incidents but they've been taking care of."

"What two incidents? What's been taken care of?"

"I don't really want to get into it over the phone." Not if she didn't have to and not at this very minute in time.

"Is it Damon?"

Bonnie grimaced, dissevering why she'd asked that and not appreciating her own imaginings.

"No," she said after a lengthy moment. "Why?"

"I—I don't… Don't get upset, okay? I'm—" Caroline rattled in a way Bonnie knew had to do with nervousness and very little to do with her ability to articulate things. She was a pro talker. Something was wrong, _very_ wrong.

"Spit it out, Care," Bonnie retorted, trying her best to keep the bite from her tone. She was seldom short with Caroline but something about her apprehension and this conversation was starting to upset her.

"Damon's there with you. I mean… not 'there' there, but he's looking for you."

Bonnie chuckled to herself softly and smiled at her grim reflection. She hadn't expected anything less from Damon.

"And how would he even know where 'there' is? I hadn't told anyone else from Mystic Falls until this second."

"Lucy," Caroline explained, wiping the smile from her friend's face unknowingly. "He got the idea last night. When you didn't call me back and your phone kept going to voicemail… I, we… got worried—"

"You did a locator spell?"

"Yeah, but—"

"Fuck!" Bonnie hissed and pushed off the counter, fixing the door with a heavy look as it abruptly swung open, permitting a brunette woman and small child the chance to push their way inside. Bonnie was half and half expecting Damon or Kai. "I've got to go. I'll call you back later."

"Bonnie? Bonnie, wait—"

"I'm okay, Caroline. I promise. I'll call you back."

She didn't listen for anymore of Caroline's explanation and hung up, starting out of the bathroom without using of the toilets, stuffing the phone back into her pocket, waiting to put as much distance between herself and Damon as possible. Who knew how close he was and if they'd managed another locator?

* * *

"Sorry I was so long," she said, refraining from sharing the news about Damon. Kai didn't need that particular piece of information. They weren't in this together – not in this sense, anyway. She was the one running, he was her tagalong. "There was a queue and an overzealous kid with water." She smiled, hoping her friendliness would speed things along and he wouldn't think to question her.

The smile smelled fake throughout to him, but Kai flashed her his own sweet one in return. "Nice try but totally unnecessary. I know you've called your friends." He got up and invited her to lead the way out. "What's new? Damon chasing us yet?"

He knew she called her friends but didn't know about Damon?

"You seem to know so much, why don't you tell me," she responded, her shoes crunching upon gravel as they started toward the car. "Don't have a handle on your vampire hearing yet?"

"I was giving you privacy in the ladies' room, and you're spiteful about it? Wow, Bon, rude. Just rude."

She refrained from burbling an apology and kept on walking. He couldn't blame her for thinking he'd intrude. That was his way. His smile, however, in spite of her darkening mood, was infectious. She hated that. She avoided looking at his face, instead focusing on the back of the car and where they now needed to go.

He trotted up behind her to keep up. "So? How bad is it? Was Mama Salvatore there and he cracked just like I said he would? Or is it the Save Bonnie crusade without any extra difficulty levels?"

"No. He wouldn't—He wouldn't get her involved," she protested with a tinge of annoyance as she approached the Ford, stopping short of heading to the passenger side, detouring toward the driver's. She extended a hand before her, wordlessly relaying that she wanted to drive. Bonnie needed something else to focus on, something to take her mind off one of her nineteen-ninety-four ex-inmates unwanted game of pursuit. "But he is coming and he's going to make life significantly harder. As always."

Kai ignored her mute request for the keys. "Are you gonna run all the time, looking over your shoulder like a thief with a city guard on your tail? Or we can actually do something about it?"

What did he expect her to do about it? It wasn't as if Damon and she were at war. Bonnie just needed time to figure things out—peacefully—and prepare herself for the next step. Space neither party appeared to want to give her.

A small, tentative, wily smile played across Kai's mouth. "We could… put him to sleep. Temporarily. Once you've had your time and peace of mind, you would lift the spell. It's a win-win, and you know it."

"You mean pull a sleeping beauty the sequel?" she snapped, hating the reminder of what he'd done to one of her best friends – to _her_. It made being here and this moment feel treacherous. "I'm not trying to hurt him—I'm just… it's complicated, okay? You are complicated—this entire mess is fucking complicated."

Not that Kai didn't know that already. Bonnie took a step back from him, forging the car keys, and propped herself against the back of the Ford's trunk to catch her breath a moment. She was a step away from having a breakdown or crying – she couldn't decide which was going to come first. She closed her eyes and then peered heavenward, relishing in the feel of the sun, the light breeze in the air and the second's reprieve to calm down.

Kai made no response, observing her.

"Maybe I can mask myself. Take myself off the radar completely," she said after a couple seconds' quiet deliberation, once more meeting his eyes. "If Damon is trying to locate me with a spell, who's to say someone else won't?" Like Lily. Not that she had anyone else at her disposal with the ability to do such a thing, but who knew what that woman was capable of?

Kai shrugged and folded his arms, keeping a serious face except for the tiny humorous glint in his eye. "And how are you gonna pull that off? I mean, masking – or cloaking – oneself is a pretty above-medium spell. You feel you have the capacity for it, like, right now?"

"No," she answered honestly and without thinking. Taming the savage prehistoric beast had taken it out of her and she didn't feel the need to push it, to cross a line she might not return from. "Let's just go. The more distance we put between ourselves and him the better."

She pushed away from the back of the car, rounding along the side of the passenger door, leaving him to drive since he'd already designated himself their personal chauffer.

Kai wasn't too hot on driving again, but climbed behind the wheel, nonetheless. "Where to now, witchling?"

"Monroeville," she answered, reminding him of her earlier suggestion. There was no need to change their plans or destination. Damon might have used Lucy for the location spell, but one phone call would end that. If only Bonnie knew her number. She'd only met her cousin once and their talk outside the Lockwoods mansion that night three years ago hadn't given them the chance to exchange numbers. She was in a hurry to escape, to distance herself from Katherine and the Salvatores' revenge. Bonnie didn't blame her.

Kai grimaced, turning the key in the ignition lock. "Some rat hole again. Gee, Bons, why do you insist on lower standards when you can do so much better? Besides, if you wanna hide somewhere – best place is a big city. Like New York. How would Damon find you in there? Or we can go south and make a stop in Malibu. Cocktails and swimming pools…"

As worried as she was about Damon catching up to them, there was also the concern of what Kai would do surrounded by so many people. Sure, he appeared to have control of his bloodlust to some degree—and there was their deal—but what if they had another falling out, what if, for some reason, he decided to massacre an entire orchestra of people? Bonnie knew he was capable of murder and excitement, things she let herself enjoy for a few hours.

Kai started to grin, eyeing her. "You requested something like that earlier, so I think it's my duty to grant your wish, since I promised. I do keep my word."

"I don't suppose I have to remind you that most of what I said and did, had to do with my breakfast wine," she murmured, sinking into her seat, lips twitching slightly to return his pleasant grin. Perhaps with enough distance covered he'd reconsider or might she have to make him. Accidentally, of course. "Just get us back on the road. I don't want to give Damon any more room to catch up than necessary."

Anger was spreading fast and irrevocably, like an avalanche. Kai had to take a few discreet deep breaths to pull the mask of serene joker back on. He did it with a smile that you give to let them know you've discovered their secret agenda. "You're so eager for another motel so we'd be stuck on the same bed again, hey, Bonsy?"

She flushed, powerless to ward away the Technicolor image of the two of them locked together so intimately this morning. He was trying to bait her. Trying to impart another reason for her motive.

"Don't worry your pretty head. Whatever hotel there is in any spot of this world, we'd still be stuck on the same bed, I can promise that. You almost don't snore at all."

She opened her mouth to tell him he was being ridiculous and that if there was an opportunity for twin beds, they were going to take it. She couldn't have him creeping any closer into her space. She was already struggling to keep him at bay. She needed to remain neutral, especially if she planned on getting through to him.

He smiled radiantly and sneaked a peek at her. "Now that we have that settled, we go for luxury and comfort this time. I got it."

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Bonnie argued, pulling on her seatbelt. "If we stay off the radar, they'll have a harder time finding us. Putting ourselves in a crowded place is exactly what Damon would do. Besides," she reached for the radio, turning it on, wanting to end their debate, "we're not on vacation, Kai." Although this morning it had felt like it, this morning had felt as though they were in the twilight zone. She loved it, she almost loathed to admit that she hated how soon it had ended – it had felt that good.

"That's exactly what we're on here, Bennett."

She frowned lightly in confusion. That's not what they were doing at all, not in her head, at least. The guy kills his overly pregnant sister at her wedding, an entire coven, and resigns one of her best friends to an everlasting nap anchored to Bonnie's state of living, and she rewards him by taking him on vacation? She must be giving him mixed signals, either that or her efforts were long lost before she'd even gotten a chance to start or figure out what it was exactly she was trying to do in the first place.

Kai turned his shrewd smile to her once they settled back into the highway traffic. "There's trouble back at home, and you're here, away from it and haven't even started on figuring out how to deal with it and where to even start. Instead, you took me as an excuse to skip your town – like, to keep me away from it and your friends and thus make Mystic Falls a safer place – and we've been having good time for a change. Which, by the way, totally favors your complexion – you look really gorgeous when you're having fun, and no amount of sleep deprivation can seep through that smile of yours."

He had parts of his speech right, but others were completely and utterly wrong. Bonnie hadn't taken him away from Mystic Falls to protect the place. She took him because she refused to have Damon or anyone else kill him. They'd tried that, failed, and Bonnie wasn't going to test that will again – not unless she really had to. But she hoped it wouldn't come to that, that she wouldn't be forced into a corner where she needed to make such a rash decision again. Not like yesterday, and not like she did with the whole nineteen-o-three debacle. She couldn't even muster a smile, couldn't bring herself to encourage what he was suggesting.

He made a dexterous arc around a slower car in front of them, sliding in before it. "So now comes the question of the day: why are you pouting now? If it's the absence of cocktails – they're coming. I keep my word."

"I'm not pouting," she responded, rolling down her window to allow fresh air into the car.

Kai noticed she found it hard to keep still whenever he hit some uncomfortable topic. Which was probably every topic he touched.

"I'm thinking." Which coincided with her serious face. "It's been a rough week. I scarcely feel like I'm able to breathe most the time and to be honest, you're right. I was having a good time. I needed the break and I enjoyed our touristy walk—" Until it exploded with a roar and the t-rex made his appearance. He hadn't seriously hurt anyone, thankfully, and she hadn't bothered to listen to the news, no doubt it was all over it, and that the government was already trying to figure out what the hell happened. They were probably blaming it on aliens or Hollywood mechanics as they spoke. "But it was stupid, irresponsible and… dangerous." That's what being with Kai was. Hazardous. Bonnie couldn't trust him, couldn't trust that he wouldn't push things too far. He was like Damon in that respect.

She expelled a soft sigh, falling silent as she turned to the watch road, letting him drive them wherever. They had many miles to cover and a couple more hours of daylight left to make a rational decision.

Kai laughed. "See? That's what fun is for you – stupid, irresponsible and dangerous! Any fun. Bennett, it's not a way to live! No wonder you die all the time. You can't live being only responsible – you end up like… _you_ , actually. Do you like how you ended up? And where, and how? It doesn't seem that way. Sometimes we do need to do something very stupid, irresponsible and dangerous to feel alive. When was it the last time you felt alive and glad to be so? Let me guess – today. You tried to live a little, and you did. And you liked it. So don't diminish it by explaining how irresponsible it was, 'cause that's what I'd call stupid and dangerous."

He swiftly circled another car in front of them and cast a wily glance at her, his lips spreading in a wicked smile.

"C'mere, straddle my lap and let's do it. Right here, right now. You desperately need to release that tension you managed to pick back up. I'll show you what the spark of life feels like when it flares into the life itself. No one's ever shown it to you." He looked at her, grinning wider.

Bonnie chose to ignore his invitation as it didn't merit a serious response and instead gazed at him as he turned to concentrate on the road. Was it that easy? Could fucking him wipe away the loneliness, grief and self-loathing she'd accumulated over the last three years? She doubted it, yet a part of her remembered the state of mind he'd reinvigorated this morning and how good it had felt. At times she was convinced he saw her for who she truly was– more so than she even saw of herself. It frightened her and exasperated her simultaneously, but in this moment she wanted more, she craved to accept and lose herself in that feeling and stamp out the trouble she knew was only a couple miles behind and closing in.

"Pull over," she demanded, startling herself out of her musing.

He ousted a soft laugh of incredulity. "What? So you can throw me out of the car? I know it's a hard concept to grasp, Banzai, but the last time you sheltered this much unreleased tension you snapped and went on a mini one-woman murder spree. The sooner you realize I'm right and how unnatural that is, the better off you'll be."

She unclipped her seatbelt, shrugging off the strap, and pulled her shirt up over her head, disposing of the cotton material to the backseat before she could reexamine her actions.

Kai looked confused, shaken even, as Bonnie struggled out of her jeans, and like he thought he might have lost his hold on reality. He was watching her as if in a dream, barely remembering to mind the road.

There was something intoxicating about brandishing that kind of influence over someone that wasn't easily shaken down, of knowing she could make a small crack in that facade of his and cut through the bullshit. Bonnie smiled and took a hold of her headrest with one hand, keeping an eye on the road as she rose off the passenger seat and maneuvered a leg over the gearshift to straddle him. He moved his arms to accommodate her body as if on automatic, meeting her eyes before glancing at the road over her shoulder to make sure they wouldn't veer off the road. For the first time since she met him he was speechless.

Bonnie leaned in to kiss his neck, disregarding the aches and pains produced by the steering wheel and door panel biting into her lower back and right leg. She wanted to laugh, finally understanding what Caroline had been complaining about – cars were not conducive for seduction. Kai made no move to touch her, his eyes fixed on the road ahead almost as if he feared his participation would break the spell. She rolled her hips lightly and ground against his lap, relishing in the friction and the soft thrumming that pulsed through her. She sensed him shudder beneath her.

"Unless you really aim to kill me," she began with bated breath, drawing her tongue up the side of his neck to nip at his jaw playfully, "I suggest you find somewhere to park and pull over."

She could tell he was barely holding onto restraint, that it wasn't something he was used to practising. She relaxed against him so that he could concentrate and get them—or at least her—somewhere in one piece, sliding her fingertips along his sides and between their bodies to brush his evident erection.

The car jerked to a sharp stop that sent her reeling into the steering wheel slightly.

"Hey," she protested as she met his eyes, pain circling the small of her back, shooting down into her legs. He smirked, cupping the back of her neck, silencing her with a thorough kiss that washed away his raw eagerness. Bonnie grappled for the handle to open the driver's door, seeing the brief misperception in his eyes as he pulled back. "It's crushing my knee. I need space to move."

"You seem to be doing just fine to me," Kai responded, circling an arm around her waist to thrust against her.

"Could be better," she countered and sighed with pleasure, emphasizing her point with a slow roll of her hips, meeting his next provocative thrust. He groaned and closed his eyes. She concentrated on the chair, undoing the slide at the bottom of the cushion to send them skating back a couple extra inches from the steering wheel, creating more space. A proficient jerk of the second handle to the left of the chair and he dropped into a reclined position.

His eyes snapped open to stare up at her, as if he was still disbelieving of what was happening and wasn't used to having such little control. She didn't harbor the same sentimentalities, she couldn't, knowing that as soon as she let herself think about the pros and cons of what they were doing, it would end far sooner than her body would like. This was about finding a recourse for the both of them amidst the chaos and about briefly stepping over that gray and white line she'd delineated between the two of them months ago. Bonnie gazed down at him, watching as his one hand steadily slid across her stomach as if to make sure she was real, and travelled upward, stopping to knead her breast and tweak the nipple. She slid her hands inward from their position, along the waistband of his pants and began to pull his shirt free, sliding her hands beneath to undo the button on his jeans and to unzip him.

Time seemed to slow to an immeasurable pace as she pulled his cock free of its material prison, their lips meeting in a furious kiss, tongues dueling, hands clutching, scratching and kneading as if they were starved for one another, as if trying to creep beneath each other's skin.

When breathing became an issue, Bonnie pulled back from the kiss, grasping a firm hold of him, squeezing lightly to make sure he was ready for her, and used the other hand to push the damp fabric of her panties' crotch to the side. She raised herself up on her knees, her left foot resting other side the stick shift as added leverage, running the tip of his cock between her silken folds, around her clit before positioning him where she most needed him. She lowered herself down onto him, the two of them gasping in unison.

"Jesus," he uttered, sounding almost as if he were in pain.

"I didn't think you the religious type," she murmured with a panting chuckle, allowing herself a second or two to accommodate his girth.

"Witch," he growled once he got himself under control, using unnatural speed to circle an arm around her waist, pulling out and thrusting back into her with such delicious precision Bonnie all but lost it. He repeated the action, punishing her in a way she never wanted to see end. She groaned and took a hold of his shoulders, winding her arms around his neck, the two of them falling into a quick and hard rhythm.

Head reeling along with every cell and nerve in his body, Kai distantly became aware of the heated tingling saturating itself in his palms, like every time he used them to siphon magic. It would hurt her, but he couldn't make himself let go of her hips.

Bonnie hadn't ever imagined it would feel like this, that one person could make you feel so whole. She opened her eyes, surprised to find he'd done the same and was watching her, as if he wanted to record every detail to memory. She claimed his mouth in another kiss, less bruising than the last, swallowing their shared moans. Ecstasy that was on the very tip of her tongue, a feeling that spread throughout every part of her body like liquid fire and was seconds from being released when all of a sudden – thump-thump – something hard hit the car's roof. They jerked to a stop, equally disorientated.

"Ma'am… Sir, I need you two to exit the vehicle."

Kai seemed to gain his sense far quicker than her, annoyed even as he concentrated on the passenger window, a familiar uniform and badge visible.

"My top," Bonnie choked out abruptly, extending a hand to summon it toward her before Kai could think to stop her. It appeared in her outstretched hand as if it had jumped into it.

"Bonnie, no, no… don't do this to me," Kai growled, his hands refusing to loosen their hold on her hips, uncaring at the man tap-taping the ceiling of the car meticulously. She ignored his bruising grip and pulled the shirt back on, the flames he'd been stoking having evaded her.

"I'm not," she croaked, every part of her body still humming. She swatted at his hands lightly, straining to reach for her pants. "I—I didn't plan for this."

"I can kill him," he suggested as another hard tap of the officers baton bounced off the roof. "A swift aneurysm and we're back in business."

She could tell he was being serious, that like his stunt in the museum, all he needed was the smallest of nods from her. Bonnie fully understood his sentiment.

"No," she mouthed, cringing when the baton was brought down on the roof a third time, then forth and fifth. She placed her hands over his, prying them from her hips, and gasped softly as she slid off him, the two of them taking a second to mourn the loss of their orgasms and to compose themselves. She climbed back over into the passenger seat, legs like jelly, watching as Kai struggled to stuff his erection into his jeans and got out. He looked downright murderous. She reached across to make a grab for his shirt to stop him, keeping a hold of the pants as she followed him out the driver's door. She couldn't trust that he wouldn't kill these people.

"Get your hands up where I can see them!" The cop closest to one of the police cars demanded. Bonnie saw two of them, red and blue blinking on their roofs, one parked behind the Ford, the other a couple of yards ahead at the curb.

Clutching her jeans, using Kai's body to shield her, Bonnie steadily rose her hands, meeting the eyes of the the officer that had been seeking their attention over the top of the roof. He was slowly circling the front of the car.

"Sir, put your hands up!" the officer commanded again when Kai didn't immediately respond.

"Kai," Bonnie murmured in a tone he'd hear above his obvious rage. "Do it."


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N a.k.a Bonnie's foreword:** **itscalledkarma** (Glad that you've enjoyed it so much!), **jordanjanellejoy** (Damon's cocksure appearance wouldn't have been appropriate – not that anything about that particular scene was. In time. Maybe. *wink wink* we're keeping up with the spoilers but haven't watched past ep3 as of yet. I'm not a fan of the direction they're taking Bonnie or her storyline or the fact that they're trying to negate Kai's impact on Bonnie's life. Bleh. Boo, Plec. Caroline's body once again undergoing a drastic change out of her hands? What's new? First Damon, then Katherine, now mystical twins. That girl can't catch a break.), **Guest** (We appreciate the time you took to read every word!), **SasukeandSakuraluvha** (This calls for a little mood music! watch?v=2ghj8_DpDfU), **Melika** (Oh yes. Mad he is. Guess you'll have to wait and read. At last! Haha.), **Jummee ** (It was a definite spur of the moment thing. Not really a plan. So, we'll have to see what the future holds on that front!)

Our apologies for keeping you waiting so long for the next installations. We suck. Nonetheless we thank you for taking the time to leave us a review and sticking with us. We truly appreciate it. xo

* * *

 **CHAPTER 27**

Shivers ran through his body, like mild distortion on a clear water surface. Kai couldn't decide whether he was more mad about how Bonnie shot him out of reality so he missed this set up coming, or darkly amused at how this all was perfect to let his rage out. He stared at the cop shouting commands, a slow homicidal smile dawning over his mouth as he felt his gums itch in anticipation of bloody chaos.

"Hands up now!" the cop yelled, his fingers twitching on the gun, his legs slightly spread and bent in the knees, prepared for – what did they call it? – resisting arrest.

Oh, Kai was willing to resist, all right. For all of a minute they had left to live.

"Kai," Bonnie hissed from behind him, tugging at his mind that had almost surrendered to the crimson beat of the bloodlust. "Do it."

He looked at her over his shoulder, incredulous and jibing. "You shitting me? They're already dead."

"Please," she implored, dropping the pants she was clutching to place her hands upon his back, hoping that at least a little contact would soothe the raging beast and make him see the light.

"Ma'am, keep your hands where we can see them!" the cop rounding the front of the car yelled, partially throwing himself back a step, impulsively removing his gun to point it at Bonnie's back, afraid she might be reaching for a concealed weapon.

She stiffened, resisting, awaiting Kai's acknowledgement.

"MA'AM! NOW!"

Her hot palms pressing into Kai's back burned and added to the ascending temperatures inside him. He looked around, releasing a slow, shaking breath. He could sense magic pricking the tips of his fingers, roiling within him like a huge, awoken monster, teeth screeching against each other. His hands were balling into fists and loosening over and over all by themselves. It was so easy to let it out now. He'd feel better, and they'd be free. Then he could wave his progress with Bonnie goodbye for who knew how long. There was too much to lose there in his work with her, but damn, how it burned! There might as well be steam coming out of his ears. His gums were screaming to release the fangs as if they were a metaphorical gate holding the racing horse in place before the start gun fired.

His head snapped sideways, fixing the cops on the left with a blazing glare. Their car was parked a few yards behind the Ford, the driver's door open, a shotgun sticking in the gap between it and the windshield with an anxious cop behind.

Bonnie was shaking as she waited for Kai's sign, anything to say he'd heard her and that he'd comply. He said nothing, the tension rising off him in thick palpable waves the way he focused on the men to their left.

There was a loud sound, as if a wrecking ball collided with metal, when the hood of the car went up in a cloud of fire and black smoke. The car jumped up a bit on its tires, like an excited pup at the sight of a toy. The cop with the shotgun fell back, showered by glass. His partner was pushed forward and landed before Kai's feet, his gun sliding over the concrete towards the next officer in their chain of four that had them in a half-circle with the Ford blocking the back. Fourth and Third still rooted behind the Ford's nose shielded their faces from the explosion, then gaped at the fire leaping from the wrecked hood of their colleagues' car.

Bonnie tightened her hold on Kai, unable to do a thing as the car's hood spontaneously went up in flames. She ducked to avoid the explosion that sent it reeling into the air like an enthusiastic child with a jump rope, and so did everyone else. Except for Kai. Chaos ensued as the four men retrained their weapons on the vehicle and then around them, as if they suspected they were under attack and entered World War II. She sucked in a breath, glad to see Kai hadn't lashed out a second time, and made a clumsy reach for her jeans, making eye contact with the skittish police officer who'd ducked and taken cover in front of the car. He straightened up and trained his weapon on her again, trembling as she tried to pick up the discarded piece of clothing, shaking his head profusely to tell her to stop moving.

"Hands up!" Third cried, his gun snapping at the couple.

Feeling better, Kai did as he said, restraining a simper.

Bonnie did just that and took a small step back into Kai, reclaiming her position behind him, thankful the highway wasn't crushed with traffic and the potential of another breaking headline. Not yet anyway, but someone would eventually call it in when they saw the smoke or caught wind of the officers frantic radio call.

They spoke amongst themselves, their eyes darting between the witches and the burning car like spooked animals. Bonnie was relieved no one had gotten seriously injured.

That cop's partner's gun found its aim, too, though his eyes snapped from the cop picking himself up from the dust to the one groaning beside the burning car. "George, you okay?"

"Yeah," George said, shaking his head once to get rid of the ringing in his ears, and went for his firearm.

"Sean? Sean, you hear me?" he careened a bit to see around the still gaping driver's door. Sean was starting to get up slowly, then couldn't, and just crawled away from the burning car on his fours, the shotgun forgotten.

"The fuck happened?" Fourth muttered, staring at the wrecked car, then regained his focus on the suspects as soon as George had his gun up. "Turn around, hands on the roof, and no tricks," he said, his gun's muzzle jerking to emphasize the command.

Kai thought the cop would shoot him if he waggled a finger wrong. It was beginning to amuse him. He turned around slowly, fixing Bonnie with a jocular but wicked stare as he put his hands on the Ford's roof. "You better have a plan in the works, 'cause I'm too pretty for jail and allergic to prisons."

She turned around to do the same, hesitating, pushing aside the fear of getting shot, and doubled back to make a second attempt for her pants. No one stopped her this time, watching as she stepped into it and quickly pulled it over her hips. She scarcely managed to zip herself up when a hand wrapped around her upper arm, wrenching her off balance to slam her into the side of the car. She grunted from the impact, wincing softly, and tensed as her hands were placed on the roof as required. Someone was patting her down, nudging her legs apart, checking for weapons as if they hadn't just seen her put a pair of harmless jeans on.

She winced as the man produced a set of cuffs and slipped them onto her wrists, hauling her away from the side of Ford like a disobedient dog, dragging her toward their only car still intact. Kai wasn't far behind her, being led to the same car and shoved into the back from the other side. She guessed they caught them for solicitation or indecent exposure, she wasn't too clued on the law. The cops convened at the front of the car, talking to their two fellow officers now dealing with the car, too afraid to get any closer to it.

While two nervous cops were searching, handcuffing and leading Kai to their car ahead of the Ford, it seemed like one giant bizarre dream that he would wake up from any moment now. Almost like the unreal picture the world turned into when he was bitten by that werewolf guy at the wedding, minus the blurry, feverish veil draping his sight that night.

Bonnie looked stunned sitting in the back of the police cruiser, staring ahead of her through the bars protecting the driver's half of the cabin.

The cops clustered at their damaged car one of them managed to put out from a small fire extinguisher, peppering their wonder with curses.

"Thank you for not killing anyone," Bonnie said, keeping her eyes trained ahead, unable to comprehend what they'd done and how stupid she'd been. This had to be some kind of intervention, something set in motion to prevent her from screwing up and making one of the worst decisions of her life. Okay, so that was a little dramatic, but it was still pretty bad and would only give Damon the fuel needed to crucify her if he ever found out.

The cop returned and slid into the driver's seat while the second cop reached for the radio, relaying that they'd apprehended their perps and were on their way back to the station.

"Yet."

Kai was half turned to her, observing through the back window how the cops tried the radio, telling the second team to stand down because they had gotten the suspects and were ready to deliver them to the station, over. Roger that, Unit six.

"There's always time to change my mind. It all depends on what _you_ have in mind, wicked witchling." He looked at her and smiled wilily when she met his eyes.

There was nothing on her mind, nothing rational that she could say to justify the fact that they'd been caught fucking on the side of the road. Her father was undoubtedly rolling in his grave.

"I can unlock the cuffs, unlock the car, cloak us, and we're gone. How about that? No one has to die. Unless you really wanna stay here, and then I should admit that this setting's even kinkier than the one we got dragged out of. I mean, how many can brag about doing it in the backseat of a police car after getting arrested? That totally counts as fun where no harm comes to no one, just the way you like it. I'm still good to go, how about you?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, grinning.

Bonnie scooted forward on the seat to take some pressure off her wrists and briefly glanced at his crotch. She should have known that sleeping with him would be a bad idea.

"Okay, look… I'm not an advocate for compulsion or anything, but I'm not too eager about having public indecency stamped on the rest of my future."

Kai chuckled.

She closed her eyes, concentrating on the cuffs digging into her lower back and the tiny lock that held it together. "Recludam et liberati," she uttered, smiling lightly as they unwound and permitted her the chance to move her arms. She darted a glance at Kai's wrists, repeated the incantation, and glanced at the four men outside, they were still too riveted by what had happened to pay any real attention to their prisoners.

Kai brought his hands from behind his back and waved the bracelets at her, sneering. "Neat."

"You compel them to forget about us and what they saw," she emphasized, highlighting the second instruction as if it tasted bitter in her mouth. "And we'll take the car and go."

He canted his head to one side, eyeing her with a mocking endearing. Then his smile dimmed a bit, eyes shifted from her face as he heard the cops talking. In a moment he donned a brighter sneer. "Tsk-tsk, Bonnie. Next time before reminding me of my sins against the society, make sure you're not driving a stolen car. And… they say we've assaulted some couple… in the shower. Weird." He frowned. "The only couple I recall assaulting was in their car, and then you stole the woman's cell phone."

He turned to the back window; the two of them were searching the Ford.

What was he talking about a stolen car? And what couple? Bonnie brought her hands forward and set the steel down in her lap, gluing her eyes to the cops congregated outside. She turned in her seat to see what he was looking at, observing as two of the four cops started to search the Ford. What were they looking for? It took her a full minute to place what he was referring to and then she remembered, last night—the highway, the body in the bath and the manager. She exhaled a shaky breath, feeling nausea kick in. Had someone seen them? Were they dead? No, no… they'd said assaulted.

Kai studied her. Bonnie looked stupefied and like she was thinking intensely. He was sure she was rehashing every person they had met in the recent days.

"We need to get out of here," she said and turned to regard her door. If she was to open it and make a run for the nearby forest, would they shoot her? Would she even make it?

"Ah, so now you wanna escape before they pin something on us we're really guilty of? Or, better put, you, since I had no idea you stole that car. That means you either didn't know, or there was someone else who knew and decided to report it. Anyone coming to mind?"

Caroline's call came to mind like a slap to the face. Damon! She snarled, hissing beneath her breath, wrenching the useless door handle. So this was his new tactic, was it? To get her locked up?

Within seconds Kai disappeared into thin air and appeared behind the wheel. The keys dangled from the ignition lock.

"Cops are always overly confident with their cars' locks," he remarked. "And not just in the movies."

Bonnie was still struggling with her decision and about to voice her options aloud when she realized he was no longer beside her, a soft gasp escaping her lips, surprised to see him on the other side of the partition. How the in the hell had he got there? She lifted a hand to check the barrier, pushing upon it to see if it would give before darting a startled look around to make sure the cops were still occupied.

He looked back at them; they had finished the search and stood by the Ford, finishing the discussions to start for the station. He took a moment to visualize the Ford's engine, then keyed the ignition. The police cruiser purred to life, and drove off. There were screams and curses from behind, but soon enough they didn't matter. He raced the cruiser for a while, going through the rare cars as though they were ethereal and not theirs, and once he started to get tired, he uncloaked them and dropped the speed to acceptable.

Before she could tell him it was a bad idea, that he would only make the situation worse and that they should have walked away cloaked, he'd started the engine and sped off. Her heart hammered in her throat and head for a long while, nails gripping at the car's seat as they raced down the highway, passing through the few cars they met as if they were ghosts. Screams built in her throat, itching to be released. Bonnie relaxed only as they slowed to a decent speed, casting a glance behind her to see if the cops managed to keep on driving or if there was anyone waiting ahead.

"We'll need you to steal another car, Bonnie. Since it's your hidden talent or something. It's hot, actually." He laughed and snuck a peek at her. "When I mentioned Bonnie and Clyde this morning, I wasn't being _that_ literal. Gotta be that cosmic humor thing."

She nodded, not at all appreciating their new status.

"Pull over," she said, flushing recalling the reason she'd suggested it earlier. "The sooner we ditch this thing, the better." They didn't need anyone else spotting the police car and the out of uniform twenty-something-year-old in the front seat. What if they had pictures they were using? What if Damon had given more detail?

Kai didn't slow down, though keeping to the line at the curb.

"Fuck," she said remembering something else. "My phone!" She'd left it on charge, letting it suck as much juice as possible in case they hit a snag and didn't reach another outlet point. She never knew with Kai and she'd been scared of losing it. Bonnie sat back and closed her eyes, sinking into the seat wearily.

Was she ever going to catch a fucking break? She needed to call Caroline, to see where they were and how far Damon was – if he called them again.

"You should keep an eye on your toys, Bonsy. No one will do that for you. Good thing you haven't left your pants behind, though I know I wouldn't mind that turn. Shame about the rest of your new clothes. We'll have to fix it in the next city we hit."

"Dammit," Bonnie cursed again, having forgotten about the clothes, another image popping in her head. Her grimoire, the herbs she'd taken, and the dead guy's things. "We have to go back. Now!" she commanded, sitting forward, rotating around to see out the back window and how far they'd gone. She couldn't see the cars anymore, or smoke.

"Woo-hoo, hold your horses, Bennett. I know you might be kinda new to this whole bandit stuff, but I'm sure it's counterproductive to escape the cops on their own car only to return, like, fifteen minutes later once they shit their pants having lost their suspects and the vehicle."

She didn't have time for this and saw all of yesterday's efforts get washed down the toilet, along with her grandmother's grimoire. Bonnie faced forward again and closed her eyes as if in deep thought, concentrating on the engine. It cut out without warning, jerking her forward, her eyes snapping open as she braced her hands against the partition. Luckily they hadn't been driving too fast and with a little repetition of her prior lock picking incantation, it wasn't long before her door popped open, too.

Kai half turned in his seat to fix her with a stern look.

"They could already be heading back to the station," she said as a means of explanation. "There isn't time to discuss a new plan." Not that they discussed the first. Kai had taken their escape plan into his own hands and although brilliant, it wasn't practical anymore, not with her secrets hanging in the balance. Bonnie pressed her palm flat against the cage that separated them, shuffling to the side of the door as the vehicle slowed to a semi safe pace, and then jumped out. She needed Kai to understand that she wasn't going to wait around and argue her point, and that he had the choice to stay. He was free to do whatever the hell he wanted. She wasn't going to force him to go back with her.

Kai put the cruiser on the break and followed her out.

"Motus," he commanded, directing a hand towards her. Magic lifted her up and swiftly returned her to the backseat. He flicked his wrist; the door snapped closed and locked anew. "Offirmo." A small charge ran through the car, securing Bonnie in.

"Hey, HEY!" she yelled in frustration, clawing at the cars seat, flinching as the door clicked closed and sealed her a second time.

"You're not going anywhere, witchling. If you're so fixed on it, I'll solve it my way. You wait here, unless you want me annoyed. And when I'm annoyed, people around me suffer."

He tipped his imaginary hat, smiling as he bowed a tad as he did, and then he was gone.

She wanted to punch him in his maddeningly handsome face. _Repeatedly_. He gave her a dramatic hat tip, smiled and vanished, leaving her to stew in the back of the car in an irritated stupor.

She counted backwards, folding her arms across her chest to keep from repeating her escape attempt and from taking another walkabout. She guessed this was as good a time as any to work on solidifying their trust.

* * *

He'd managed to put some serious miles between them and the cops, so he was almost panting when he got there. The officers were about to move out with the back-up that had arrived a minute before Kai. One of them was putting all posts and patrols on the look-out for the two criminals on the loose in a stolen police vehicle. As he voiced the plate numbers on the radio, Kai wondered if Bonnie was listening back there in the car in question.

He was in no way going to waste more time on this than he needed to. "Somnus," Kai said, and every one of the dozen present on the scene fell down like a robot with the power cut off. He didn't remove the cloaking spell, either, not to endanger the one he still held on the car with Bonnie, while he retrieved her bag and cell phone from where they put it in one of the newly arrived cruisers.

* * *

One minute ticked by, then two and three, by five Bonnie unlocked the door again and sat facing the outside. She watched the highway for trucks and anything that might ride into the back of them since they'd parked in the middle of the road without hazards. She raised a brow, surprised when the radio crackled and she heard the police give their ETA and next plan of action. That was stupid, unless they somehow thought they could set the witches up or had forgotten that they could listen in? By the time she considered following after him, he appeared, tossing her heavy clothing bag into her lap like a hunting trophy.

A brief concentration exercise, and the car came alive again. Kai, on the other hand, didn't feel so hot anymore. He needed a fix soon. "Make use of that phone and find us the closest car dealership," he told her.

She scuffled back inside while he reclaimed the driver's seat, pulling the door closed. She checked the bag to make sure nothing had been removed and forgotten, and nearly cried in relief when her fingers grazed her grandmother's grimoire. Bonnie zipped up the bag again, pushing it off her lap, phone in hand. She brought up google and searched for the nearest dealership as he'd requested.

"Seems the nearest car dealership is Shockley Honda in Ballenger Creek," she stated, casting a glance at the road in search of a sign or anything to show where they now where and how far they'd gotten.

"What? Gimme that." Kai closed his fingers on her phone appeared on his palm and got a few clicks in.

She scowled as the phone vanished from her hand and appeared on the other side of the partition. She was starting to grow more and more annoyed by that trick.

A small smile flickered across his mouth as he made his pick. "We're going to Owings Mills," he informed her, and returned the phone.

The radio crackled, and a voice requested Units 6, 8 and 9 to please, respond. They did not, and requests continued for a bit.

Kai's smile grew wider as he took to the right and sped up.

Bonnie didn't care anymore, all she wanted was to get somewhere safe and away from the spotlight Damon shone on their heads. The radio crackled to life again, making her stomach flip-flop anxiously.

"You didn't kill anyone, did you?" she asked. She stared at the rearview mirror, seeking to meet his eyes and see if he would tell the truth.

Kai almost laughed, restraining himself the last second, clearing his throat instead, and shifted his shoulders as if in a half-conscious shrug. "Well, I had to get away somehow, and there was about a dozen of them already. Apparently, their back-up had arrived. You know, sometimes cloaking alone doesn't cut it."

She swallowed any indignant response she might have felt brewing on her tongue and mulled over her wavering sanity. What was she thinking taking Kai on as some kind of tragic rescue case? She wasn't cut out for this shit. Forgiveness and believing that others could change without so much as trying was Elena's gig – Bonnie was the judgmental magic maker and occasional buffer.

She was silent for a while, and Kai could tell what she was thinking without sneaking a peek at her in the mirror. Though he did, and her jaw was set while she was trying not to look his way. Her heartrate wasn't calm, either.

"How far are we from Owing Mills?" she asked, craving to reach for her phone as a distraction. "We should dump this thing before we get too close to town or stumble upon another accident."

Tracking a police vehicle wouldn't be too hard and she was feeling far too exposed for her liking riding around in this thing, even more so than she did in the position they'd caught them in less than an hour ago.

"Yeah, no, I'm not stupid – despite what you might think, given all those endless instructions of what we should do at any moment. I realize we won't be riding this car in public, blinking lights and roaring sirens, so you should relax and not distract me, or I could lose my focus, the cloak falls off, and we're bare-assed."

The radio cracked, some voice sending back-up to three unresponsive Units on Interstate 270; he shot an annoyed glance at it.

Bonnie arched a brow and sat up, peering around. They were still cloaked? She hadn't even realized. She thought once he left and went walk about that it had dropped—and maybe it had—but she didn't think he'd pick it right back up again. She was dumbstruck, awed by his capabilities. He'd been doing this for well over twenty minutes if that was the case—and then some. What if he dropped dead? It wouldn't be possible, he was a vampire, if he did die, he'd come back eventually, right?

"It's Owings Mills, by the way," he added. "Not in the direction they expect us to go, and we're off the interstate for quite some time now. You might wanna relax a bit, they won't catch us if we don't let them."

He said the name of the town as if somehow she should know where that was. She hadn't a clue, couldn't remember even seeing it in her search as she'd been looking for things near here.

"Sorry," she murmured, allowing him the wanted ceasefire needed to get them to their getaway destination in one piece. She folded her arms across her chest, musing over his change in attitude. Yesterday he expected her to handle things on her own for the most part, to take care of dead bodies and their gross disposal, and today hadn't started off much differently. She hadn't meant to sound bossy or ungrateful. But things had changed now, hadn't they? At least a little. Letting him that close, accepting his advances and instigating the follow through had altered things or their understanding. Did he feel that, too? She didn't ask. She wouldn't, not for now and not until they were safe somewhere.

He didn't respond to her muttered apology, and the rest of the way they drove in silence, interrupted only by occasional crackling of the police radio. Apparently the cops he'd left slumbering had been located, and an ambulance had been called.

He parked a mile or so short of Owings Mills, at the curb, and killed the engine.

"Wait in the car, I'll try to be quick," he told Bonnie, glancing through the bars at her. "The car is cloaked, you're safe."

He stepped out without waiting for her reply, and took advantage of his supernatural speed.


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N a.k.a Bonnie's foreword:** **tvd1992 ** (I guess I should be saying the same?), **itscalledkarma ** (Trying to break Damon of over a hundred years of bad habits and even worse choices would be impossible. Like pulling teeth I imagine. Especially since he doesn't want to change.), ** Night250 **(We're slow unfortunately. We're trying though. TVD has made many mistakes of its run. Killing Kai and the Gemini Coven was one of the worst. The stories lines we could have had. *dreamy sigh* Plenty more intimate to come. This story is about them getting to know themselves, each other and everything in-between.), **pennytree ** (Well she can't knock him for everything, right? This about building bridges, about learning to adapt to their new lives and how to deal with one another. Bonnie can be bullheaded, so for her to actually quake a little every now and then—to break HER habits—feels good. You're right about that. The magic aspect needs to be introduced more on TVD and utilized with respect. We're flattered you think so, truly!) **, jordanjanellejoy **(Yes, yes they did. Speciality a-la-Kai. He has so many tricks up his sleeve that even I can't keep up at times. Hopefully Bonnie will learn from him. Haha.), ** JustStockton **(Bonnie is a little shell-shocked. She doesn't know where to start when it comes to making amends for something so great. She's never been in this position before, never been the reason an entire coven of innocents have died or pulled the trigger. There has always been outside influence. Also she's still trying to assimilate to being in crowds again, dealing with magic, pushing herself as she did before while simultaneously worrying about taking it too far. Her head space is all over the place. She's taking it minute by minute basically.), **Cherry1 ** (Hopefully you're still alive and the wait hasn't killed you. ;(), **RoryFrankenstein ** (There will be plenty team effort in future. Now that she is set on helping him. And herself.), **Albion19 ** (Glad you're enjoying it!)

We're tardy. Again _._ Deserving of many hours of merciless flogging. Anyone up to the task? Feel free! *wink wink* Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review and sticking with us. We truly appreciate it. xo

* * *

 **CHAPTER 28**

The Toyota Motor Sales in Owings Mills provided a nice selection, including a few expensive models. Kai closed his eyes, murmuring a spell, and sensed his face tingling as the illusion took hold, then he headed in. A couple was strolling along the aisles, like they were in a museum, and a man of about forty-something chatted with one of the salesmen inside a black Hilux.

"How may I help you, sir?"

Kai smiled at the guy, his eyes slipping to his LARRY name-tag. "I'd like to talk to the manager here," he said with a push of compulsion. "We have my deal prepared, I came to pay and take the car."

Brief surprise swept through Larry's face, but the smile never faltered. "Of course. Follow me."

The manager's name was G. Burke; he was pushing sixty and would be better off without fifty pounds. Larry didn't bother explaining and announcing, he let Kai in and removed himself from the office.

Burke raised his bushy eyebrows. "What is this all about?"

Kai waved a hand, disabling two cameras overseeing the room, then closed the distance to his desk, locking eyes with the man. Weariness pulled him down, but not too badly just yet. He had to hurry. "You're gonna pay for that grey Yaris Sedan in your showroom from your account now," he pushed. The manager blinked and silently reached for the computer keyboard and mouse, fingers clicking.

"Who do I register it on?" he asked, sounding like a man deep in thoughts that confused him.

"Clyde Parker," Kai said and relayed the numbers from his ID. A small sneer flickered across his lips. The guy from that ID, minus the name, was dead since 1994 and had a tombstone in Oregon's cemetery. Once Burke was done printing papers, he handed them to the buyer with a plastic bag containing the key and instruction manual. "Now," Kai said, "you will remove all the data about that car from your database as if it never existed here. And the money you spent went as your investment into this store. You're the co-owner of it now, congratulations. I'm sure your wife will be happy to forgive you for throwing this money away."

"Yes," Burke said in a blank tone. "She will be happy."

Kai gave Larry one of the keys, and in ten minutes the sales agent drove the Yaris out of the store to where Kai was waiting outside. Larry absorbed the instruction to forget all about the car—and him—and walked away while Kai slipped behind the wheel, dropping the bag with the documents on the passenger's seat.

* * *

There was no time for Bonnie to talk to Kai or slow him down once he cut the engine. She envied his resilience. Nodding when he instructed she stay behind and reassured her that she wouldn't be spotted. She didn't question Kai this time, unwearyingly waiting for his return trusting he'd be as prompt as he was before, listening to the directives being passing along the CB radio fixed in the front of the police cab. Were they trying to draw them out by leaving things open to translation or had the car's hood popping off the frame like readied bacon fried their common sense?

For right now Bonnie didn't care, she was too pissed. She couldn't believe how far Damon was willing to go to have her concede to his point.

She pulled her clothes bag closer, unzipping it, scratching around inside for her hairbrush. She happened upon the murder victim's wallet, pulling it from its holding and listlessly thumbed through the identification. Apparently he didn't live too far from where they were. Had he been going to meet someone? Was he returning home from somewhere? She considered suggesting they go there, to spy where this man lived and with who. Damon would never find them there and they'd be safe for the night. Police didn't know about this person or the fact that they'd pretty much wiped him off the map. She tossed the wallet aside as though it had burnt her, nauseated and unsettled as she reached for the cellphone. How could she even think like that? What the hell was wrong with her?

She gave her bag a swift kick to the other side of the bench and leaned against the door, watching a few cars come and go as she dialed Caroline.

"Bonnie?" Caroline greeting, answering after two rings. "Are you okay?"

"No, no I'm not."

"What happened? Where are you?"

"He tried to get us arrested," Bonnie stated.

"Who? What?!" Caroline spat, sounding outraged. "He what? How is that even possible?"

"He fabricated some story about us assaulting someone."

"Oh God, Bonnie. I'm so sorry."

"Do you know where he is now?" Bonnie asked.

"No. I—he hadn't spoken to us since he called the last time."

Bonnie nodded as if she was in front of her, and sighed softly.

"Bonnie?"

"I'm still here."

She didn't feel like talking anymore, unsure of what else she could say.

"Are you okay?" Caroline repeated, her voice filled with sincere concern.

"Can I let you know later?"

"Bonnie, you need to let me know where you are. Stefan and I can help you. We've come this far and right now we don't know where to go."

"I should go," she said. "I'll call you later."

"Bonnie, please—"

She hung up before Caroline could convince her to spit out their location. Turning the phone off to preserve the battery in case she called her back, and slipped it into her bag.

 _It wasn't long before a car pulled up._

* * *

Kai lifted the cloak on the police car when he pulled over next to it. Bonnie pushed away from the police vehicle, eyeing the new ride.

"Sorry, Bonster. I'd get something fancier, but it seemed counterproductive in our current situation. The less attention we get the better. Get your stuff outta there."

"That's alright," she said as she grabbed a hold of her bag and transferred it to the other car. "We could have been stuck with worse. This at least looks like it has some space."

When she pulled the last of her things out of the cruiser, he closed its back door, recollecting the spell. Kai felt nauseous, but ignored it. One car went by since they stood here, but he doubted they paid much attention to their vehicles. From the corner of their eye, it must have looked like a cop pulled someone over at random to check on the driver.

He stood at the cruiser's flank and held his hands out, palms toward the car as if to stop it. "Comminuo."

The cruiser shivered, like in a small earthquake; a distortion ran along its surface as though it was made out of paper and a wind blew over it. And then it shattered into silver sand to his feet.

When Bonnie turned back to see and ask what he planned to do with the police car, it disintegrated, bursting into silvery bits of what almost looked like glitter. She was stunned.

He heard Bonnie's gasp, and then his sight darkened. He felt as though the ground wavered beneath him, wondering if he was passing out just like that. Something pressed into his temples, like strong hot fingers. He remembered the nosebleed he got while trying to get to Bonnie in the prison world, and wondered once again if he had really exhausted himself enough to blackout.

Kai went down, too, hardly leaving Bonnie room to react and catch him, her legs automatically collapsing under her as she reached for his deadweight, bracing his head from impact and banged her hip mid-save. She took a moment to recover and curse, blood trickling from his nose much like it had hers for years. She didn't move, rather appreciating the discernable weakness in his impenetrable armor. She wiped the blood from his nose, it already having stopped – a vampire healing perk. She slipped her arms lower, sliding them beneath his armpits, and hauled him up against her a moment, turning him away from the view of the road, cradling him in the crook of her left leg, keeping him shielded between her and the car.

Bonnie glanced down at her left wrist, placing her right hand over the smooth skin and murmured, "Discernebam." She repeated the word over and over, gritting her teeth as the skin started to separate, pulling apart as if a dull knife was being used to cut through it. She pried his slack mouth open a little, placed her damaged wrist against his lips, and waited for him to register the taste and instinct to kick in.

* * *

"She hung up on me," Caroline pointed out unnecessarily. Stefan reached out to touch her shoulder, to let her know he understood her mounting frustration. "Maybe we should try and call Damon again."

"And say what?"

"That we had a change of heart and want to help him."

"Damon is many things but he isn't an idiot."

"Could have fooled me," Caroline uttered beneath her breath, still bitter about being stabbed by him.

She stared at her phone, willing it to ring again. Stefan slid into the front seat of their car to give her room to reflect, and helped himself to one of the blood packs she'd managed to stuff into a travel cooler. He hadn't even thought of that and yet, somehow, she'd managed—at last minute—to make sure they could survive for an entire weekend. He appreciated her organizational skills under pressure, the calm that she used to analyze things and how level-headed she'd been. But that façade was gradually starting to crumble where the safety of her best friend was concerned. The last motel they'd visited had been littered with police cars and two people who'd crowed about being assaulted by an interracial couple. Stefan hadn't thought anything of it at first, but the more they presented their story, the more they described who'd been where and what had happened – the clearer it had become. The only question now was, had Kai really attacked these people or was this a gimmick Damon pulled from out of his sleeve? Bonnie had said something about them being set up, that it had been fabricated, but how could they be sure that was true? Kai wasn't an animal you could lock up and control. Stefan didn't need to be a rocket scientist to know that and respect his capabilities. He worried for Bonnie, worried that maybe his brother was right and that she'd gotten herself in it too deep. He didn't voice those concerns to Caroline.

"What are we going to do?" Caroline asked as she clutched the phone. She'd just tried Jeremy's old number and found it to be disconnected. He must have changed it.

"What is there to do?" Stefan replied as he lowered the pack from his mouth and removed a room key from the console in the middle of the car. He tossed it toward her.

"This was a bad idea," she said as she caught it. She didn't want to stop driving, didn't want to make herself comfortable while they waited for a signal.

"They could still be around here."

"I doubt that, I lost their scent ages ago and that place…"

"Yeah, the blood—" Caroline cut in before he could explain. The fresh scent of blood overrode Bonnie's scent, making the idea of tracking her almost impossible. They needed a witch. "Isn't there any way you can get hold of Lucy?"

"I don't know her. I don't think she'd appreciate me calling her up out of the blue to ask another favor."

"But it's for Bonnie," Caroline argued. Stefan smiled forlornly, knowing that in their world that meant something. He didn't even know her number. "What about her mother?"

Stefan finished off the pack and stuffed it into the plastic bag they'd hung on the gearshift for garbage. He'd pushed Abby out of his mind ages ago—along with the rest of the questionable stuff he'd done—he had to or the guilt would have consumed him and he'd have spiraled deeper into his pre-ripper-brood stage. He wasn't proud of it, nor was he a fan of his methods, but it was all he had to keep going.

"Stefan?" Caroline asked, registering the distant look that swashed his face.

"I don't know if Bonnie would appreciate us pulling her mother into this." And nor was he ready to face the woman. He hadn't seen her since the day Elena had been kidnapped and wouldn't be surprised if she rocked up on his doorstep one day with vengeance in her eyes. Caroline appeared to think it over, to really consider her options and how willing she was to cross this boundary.

"Bonnie isn't always willing to admit she needs help," Caroline explained after a moment, moving to crouch down in front of him, her eyes searching his face as if seeking his approval. She would do it anyway, but for whatever reason she needed to know he was in her corner and that he'd be there to catch her if something went wrong. "I… I need to do this for her."

Stefan inhaled, refraining from mentioning that she was risking the trust of her best friend and that if this went wrong—if Abby decided not to help—that things would only get worse.

"Do you have her number?" Stefan asked.

"Yeah," Caroline said, running through the contacts on her phone. "When she left—I err… I made her give me some form of contact number in case something happened to Bonnie and I needed to get a hold of her. She only gave it to me because I promised not to give it to Bonnie."

"And did you?"

"Of course," Caroline answered without hesitation, giving him a 'do you think me daft' look. "As bad as I felt for Abby, what she did to Bonnie was wrong and it broke her heart."

Stefan wanted to ask if Bonnie called her mother, if they'd made contact and were getting closer before she died—since he hadn't been informed on those specifics of her life—not anymore. He didn't, and watched as Caroline dialed, stood and forced a smile into her voice. The motel keys dangling in her left hand listlessly.

* * *

After a moment or two, the sharp, ripe taste of blood cut through the haze clouding his mind, and Kai swallowed hungrily. Her skin smelled sweet pressed under his nose, making his mouth water. Her blood seeped into the fibers of his body like water soaking sand, filling him with energy.

Unknowingly she smiled in relief when his eyelashes began to flutter and he appeared to regain a healthy glow.

He gave an appreciative hem, and she took her wrist away. He licked his lips and sat up, his senses sharp once again.

"See, whenever I decide to help you, it backfires. Some would say I gotta learn my lesson already."

She opened her mouth to tell him that she hadn't forced him to help her this time, that she was capable of taking the lead, and to remind him that he'd been the one to shoot her ideas down. He climbed to his feet before she could think to utter a retort, looking deceptively refreshed and as if he'd stopped to take a short nap. What were the consequences now that he was a witchpire? Could he die from magic overuse? Was he ready to go another round now that her blood was coursing through his system anew?

He got up to his feet lightly as if he weighed nothing, and it was how he felt. Dizziness didn't return, as if he never felt it. He looked down at Bonnie still sitting on the ground, a small sly smile tugging at his mouth as he held out a hand and gently raised her up to standing.

"You look worried," he remarked, tipping his head to the side with a faint studying squint. "Maybe I should pass out more. It brings out your best savior qualities."

"Ha, ha," she said and withdrew her hand, dusting off bits and pieces of the silver metal they'd ended up sitting in. "I'm just… you used a lot of magic. I mean, the getting there… the cloaking spells… it took a lot of out of you. You passed out." If he didn't know that already. "How are you feeling now? Are you good to go? Should I take over driving for a while?" It would be easier and she'd be getting them to the next destination of her choice.

"No. I'm fine, cool, fresh and ready." Kai headed for the driver's door, opened it, and turned to look at Bonnie. "I can't take enough blood from you without killing or harming you more than intended, and thus there is a limit on how much power I can waste between feedings, I guess." He shrugged nonchalantly, then cracked a wicked smile. "Still, it's a damn lot of magic. Hop in, supergirl." He slid behind the wheel and started the engine.

She shook her head, daring a look to the highway as if she expected the cops to be there and then climbed into the passenger seat.

"We should stick to our original plan," she said once they broke away from the curb. "Head for Monroeville. We can figure out a next move from there."

* * *

Lily paced back and forth in front of the Captain's desk while Enzo looked surprisingly content watching her from one of the two chairs placed in front of it. Damon claimed the bigger chair behind the computer, his legs crossed and lifted onto the corner of the desk, a magazine open on his thighs. Jeremy sat rigid and wide eyed on a two-seater couch on the opposite side of the room away from the vampires, a wooden stake in one hand, phone in the other. Ever since they'd left the motel and conjured up their assault story, the hunter human had been weary of his associates – more so Enzo and Lily. A first if anything considering his volatile and neck-snapping history with Damon. As if on cue, Jeremy stood and headed for the office door.

"Where are you going?" Damon asked, lifting his head from the tedious print of letters. He liked celebrity gossip as much as the next self-acclaimed psychopath, but he'd grown bored of reading about the Kardashians' latest drama. And he had no use for make-up tips or relationship advice.

"I need a drink, dad."

"And by that I hope you mean an alcohol free spritzer," Damon retorted, ignoring the parental jab.

Jeremy snorted softly and walked out. He was in no mood to temper the vampire's humor. Fortunately the station wasn't very big and only had a handful of staff on rotation, all of whom he'd compelled. Three jail cells, one interrogation room, a unisex bathroom and big Jim's office. At least from what they'd cared to see. Lily looked like she was getting cabin fever, had been from the moment Damon—with Enzo's help—convinced her that they needed to stay put and that their prey would come to them.

"How can you be certain this plan of yours will work?"

They'd had this argument twice already. Damon snapped the magazine shut and prepared for round three.

"It's been over half an hour since we heard anything. Sheriff Wilts should have called you. Us."

Damon drew his legs off the desk, tossed the magazine into the middle of it and stood.

"I'll go check with Sophia. In the meantime, why don't you take Enzo out for a stroll and grab a bite to eat."

Enzo's lips twitched as he looked up, regarding his friend, the insult seemingly bouncing off him.

"I'm not hungry," Lily cut short.

That probably had something to do with the chunk she'd taken out of the woman in the shower. Still, he didn't trust her or her appetite, having learnt from Stefan and his similarly messy habit.

"Even so, you're anxious and impatient, and from what I've witnessed, that doesn't make for a good combo in the control department."

Lily's hands balled into exasperated fists. She wanted nothing more than to take a bite out of her eldest.

"You have your cellphone, right?"

Enzo raised the device, giving it a cursory shake. He was like her walking-talking modern day male handbag. Damon might have pitied Enzo if he wasn't aware his friend had self-assigned that task.

"Then you're good to go. As soon as they get here, I'll call and you can wisp your way right over."

A heavy, tense silence fell across the room while the woman contemplated her son's offer. She didn't trust him as far as she could throw him.

"Fine," Lily retorted in a tone Damon was starting to resent. Enzo stood. "We won't be far," she started out the same door Jeremy had only moments ago, walking regally through the small establishment for the front door, her loyal companion in tow. For all of a minute Damon wondered what Enzo wanted from her and if the two were romping behind the scenes. He couldn't wrap his head around the image—surprising considering his father had been dead over a century—that threatened to crack through his sanity. He didn't need that headache. He exited the office soon after them, approaching the counter where Jeremy was already in deep conversation with the pretty brunette behind the counter.

"Making friends?" Damon chimed as he approached the counter, bringing a hand to rest on the young hunters shoulder. Jeremy tensed.

"Yeah," Sophia added with an attractive smile. Jeremy seemed to clam up again, his boyish smile and brief attempt at flirtation going up like smoke.

"You know he has a girlfriend, right?"

Jeremy's mouth fell open, his eyes narrowing into slits before fixing themselves on Damon's haughty expression. Sophia looked slightly taken aback, as if she hadn't considered that option or didn't care for it. She kept smiling, a practiced one that probably warmed many a man's heart.

"He's kidding," Jeremy snapped back, feeling compelled to defend himself.

"Actually, I'm not."

Jeremy frowned and reached around into the waistband of his pants to retrieve his stake. Damon grinned.

"If we're going to get our witch back in one piece and without too much muss, you're going to have to redirect that charm of yours and win her back over to team baby Gilbert. At least until we're back in Mystic Falls."

"I'm not going to do that to Bonnie," Jeremy said, ignoring the brunette as she glanced between the two of them.

"Now is not the time to go noble, Gilbert. Besides, it's nothing you haven't done before. Need I mention your tryst with Anna? Let's not forget Vicki."

Jeremy flushed, his eyes guiltily darting to the floor, his anger and need to kill temporarily forgotten.

"That's over. We worked through it—and it's none of your business."

"Did you?" Damon asked, propping his elbow upon the counter. "That's not what she told me."

Jeremy stared at him blankly, trying to decipher what he meant and hoping Damon would take mercy on him and elaborate.

"What? She gets chatty after a couple tequilas and weepy after whisky," Damon said as per explanation, a crooked grin creasing onto his lips. "It was a long four months."

"I'm not doing it," Jeremy repeated, ignoring the pang of irritation that hummed through him.

"We'll talk about it later," Damon responded, turning a kilowatt smile on Sophia. "So… how's our wanted duo doing? How long until they get here?"

"They haven't—"

Damon raised a hand to silence her before she could tell him the bad news. One minute they'd been told the two were on their way, that they'd been found on the side of the road—probably suffering a flat tire—and that they were being hauled in, and the next they'd announced that they'd up and disappeared. That they'd been chasing after them for a full on minute and that the care had literally disappeared off the face of the map. For a time Damon had left them, let them do their thing and have been forced to convince his mother to stay—to wait it out—as they couldn't get far. They were witches for Chris' sake, and Bonnie had a conscience, he didn't see her allowing for anyone to get hurt. He hadn't expected them to space jump an entire car. Now they were scrambling at the bit to try and find the two, shuffling out more wanted posters and extending the field. He'd hoped that it would turn around, that they'd be nabbed again and that their waiting would be cut short, but it hadn't happened – not yet. Damon turned away from the girl, glad his mother wasn't around to hear that piece of news, and wracked his brain for a new plan.

* * *

"Enough, Lorenzo," Lily said from where she stood in front of the station, her index and middle fingers wrapped around a flower he'd given her moments ago. They hadn't left and she'd overheard. "We need to go."

"Go?" he echoed.

"We know where they are. I have a clear enough lock on her scent."

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea, Lily."

"Damon is not trying to help me. He promised to give me my family. He lied. All he does is lie." Lily turned to look at Enzo, her lips forming an almost sweet smile. "You're either with me—"

Enzo took her hand before she could finish the sentence, dashing toward the trees, forgoing their car in hopes of quickly reaching the highway on the other side of Washington.


	29. Chapter 29

_Once again, let us express how sorry we are for rare updates, but we have to confess it has a little to do with how reviews dropped in the recent times - and with them (as it leads to assume) the interest for this story. We fight hard for motivation to keep posting, and we could use any help you may want to offer in the form of your feedback. You've always been our motivation, guys. It means a lot to us to know it's still needed, to find out what you liked best or worst, what made you laugh or chuckle or want to shed a tear, because it's what we are all here for - sharing a story. Performing in front of what feels like an empty room is a sad business. "It is known."_

 _Also we would love to thank our constant readers for their support - it means the world to us knowing you enjoy things we share with you. Bless your kind hearts, and here, have some bonkai we've prepared for you with love._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 29**

"Welcome to Bel Air, Banzai," Kai announced, killing the engine, and stepped out.

Bonnie opened her eyes at the sound of Kai's enthusiastic voice, blinking furiously to rid herself of the mist of exhaustion that had overcome her while they drove. She hadn't even realized she fell asleep.

They had pulled up next to a three-store white SpringHill Suites Marriot. He opened the backdoor and pulled Bonnie's bag out. "Now, I bet this one's better than the rat hole you had in mind."

She stared at the stark white building ahead, taking in its pleasant look, noting that it looked nothing like the sordid pictures of the seedy horror movie motel she'd been intending to drive them to. Bonnie unlocked her door and stepped out, watching as Kai started for the entranceway, her bag in hand. She followed.

Registration didn't take long and ten minutes later they'd settled into their new room. It was quaint, something you'd expect from a home choice catalog.

Their room was on the second floor, neat and pleasant, with a wide bed in front of a TV. A painting with a blue flower Kai would never want in his house hung over the head of the bed. He dropped her bag at the door and closed it after she stepped inside, looking around. He shrugged the jacket off, dropped it in a chair and glanced out the window. It was dark, almost 10PM. He was hungry and tired.

"They didn't have twin beds?" Bonnie asked once she took in the sight of the double bed, knowing he probably hadn't even bothered to ask them about that. She walked over to the small kitchenette, opening a few cupboards to check them, and found a couple sachets of coffee, sugar and a brochure for nearby fast food restaurants. Considering the time she wasn't sure they'd deliver or that the hotels kitchen was even open, but maybe she could head out and pick something up.

He chuckled. "Does it matter?" He dropped on the bed and stretched, yearning to dive under covers and sleep a day away. "You didn't mind being close to me earlier today. Which reminds me: we gotta get that race to finish line." He grinned at her and tapped a hand beside him, inviting.

"Seriously?" she asked, flushing slightly, recalling her earlier lapse of insanity. What the hell had she even been thinking when she proposed to follow through with his snark so literally? "You've just spent near on two hours saving our asses from the roast, camouflaging us, and a little blood has made you peppy?"

She didn't want to anger him, have him charge off and nibble on someone else to piss her off, or worse.

He was looking at her with an impish smile, saying nothing to disprove her statement.

"Sex is not going to solve anything right now. Besides—" she turned toward another door, one she assumed led to the en-suite bathroom, "—it's probably better we… focus on something else. Like sleep."

"Oh, Bonnie, Bonnie. Of course, sex's gonna solve things. Like, it might make me wanna help you further. Remember I said I wasn't here to make things easier for you? Well, I can be persuaded. To a point." He flashed her a both boyish and bawdy smile.

She stared at him with a mild sense of disgust, praying that whatever blackmail plans he suddenly conjured up were another of his many quirk filled attempts to get under her skin – and not literally.

"Fine, forget sleep." She waved the booklet of take-away places she found and walked over to the phone, hopeful that one might still be open and that it wasn't too late to order something in. "Let's focus on food. Would you like something to eat? Something that doesn't involve me or any other part of my anatomy?" she added before he could make some crass joke. She wanted to keep him on point.

Kai laughed and settled against the pillows, hands beneath the head, ankles crossed. "Honey, I'm a vampire. What other food aside from all things _you_ can you interest me in?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes and picked up the receiver to make sure it had a dial tone. She wasn't in the mood to convince him of anything. She flipped through the booklet, taking less than two minutes to decide what she wanted. Pizza Hut. She reset the phone and dialed the restaurant with an hour to spare. A chipper voice answered, asking for her cellphone number and what road she was in. Bonnie gave the hotel's address, the room number and telephone number from the neatly printed label in bold above the receiver. A shared laugh about hotel kitchens being closed and making the right decision and she'd relayed her order of a Meat Feast and extra cheese. She didn't bother to do the same for Kai. They'd share or he'd figure out something for himself.

She dropped the phone back onto its cradle lightly, easing around to study him, trying to digest everything that happened today and how awkward she'd made it. How unsettled. "Want first dibs on the shower?"

He studied her for a longer moment of silence, then said: "Have you been paying attention to yourself? Do you hear yourself when you speak? Excuses, reasons for escape, avoiding and denying… That's all you choose to be every damn time you get a chance to be something. Seems exhausting. You what, can't wait for more wrinkles and grey hair to pepper your rich experience of wasting precious years of youth and vigor? Have you ever considered that by holding back on your power, emotions, feelings and impulses, you're holding back on your life? And since karma's so quick with us, it's what always ends up stolen from you? Perhaps you're giving the universe a signal that you don't really want that sparkly life it offers you."

She stared at him, trying to understand what part of having impulsive roadside sex had been good. Wasn't the fact that they were caught? Wasn't that she physically had to fight her way into her pants a clear sign of how bad it was? Also, not to mention that it was one of the many stupid things she'd done over the last year.

He gave her a hearty, compassionate look. "It's not a healthy signal to send out, Bonsy."

"And what do you know about healthy psychology?" she asked, her lips twitching at the audacity he had to incessantly judge her life choices and her apparent lack thereof. "You stabbed your sister, her babies and yourself all less than ninety-six hours ago and set the world ablaze. Or at least Mystic Falls. What do you know about denying and healthy impulse?"

"No, actually, from what I noticed, you're being the one with issues in grasping concepts about healthy impulses and psychology. Which I totally wasn't prepared to find in you – given I hold you in such high regards the way you truly deserve."

Bonnie pushed away from the desk she'd been leaning against, and slowly walked toward him, trying her best to avoid sitting on the bed—of giving him the impression that she was accepting his invitation to finish what they'd started—or running away to the kitchen and coming off like a coward. She knew he possessed some kind of affection for her or obsession—he'd admitted as much at the wedding massacre—but it felt surreal to even think that Bonnie affected him so deeply, that he'd left her taped up but killed Jo. And some part of him must have loved her? Why hadn't he returned the favor?

Kai gifted her with a brief version of the same compassionate look. "Why are you so stubbornly pretending to not be digging what I say? Or is it that you actually refuse to dig it in favor of your old and good-for-dying—sorry, good-for-nothing habits? All those wonderful things you listed that I did came from your deed, by the way. And, let me note here, I don't really blame your stabbing me in the back. I agree it wasn't too smart of you, given how it brought us to the mayhem at the wedding that could've totally been avoided, but in itself, it was a good way as any to let the venom out of you."

Was that his way of saying he forgave her? That he understood her reasoning? Bonnie wasn't sure, but a part of her feared feeling as though that was all she needed to hear. She hadn't been able to explain it herself – not properly.

"I'm good enough in psychology to figure how it all must've kept building inside you until you had to act," he continued. "I understand, and we're cool on that—those stabs. My point is all about how it felt." He grinned at her, a grin of a devil with small red sparks of humor in it. "Savvy? How. Did it. Feel?"

"Good," she said before she could think to stop herself. She met his eyes, not even a hint of humor in them. She was dead serious. "At least while the adrenaline was still pumping."

Going to bed that night, she allowed herself to believe that a weight had been lifted from her shoulders and that she'd healed of the horrors that had plagued her since her return. The nightmares started not long after. Kai would always return and do more damage, torturing her and setting Mystic Falls ablaze. Bonnie disregarded them, brushing the vivid nightmares off as guilt, as a way of subconsciously punishing herself and put on her make-the-best-of-it-face. She'd gone to a few frat parties, took extra courses to catch up on what she'd missed throughout the year, and tried to have some semblance of a normal happy life.

Kai reacted with 'I knew as much' look.

"If you're trying to psychoanalyze me and tell me that I'm like you… then save it." She didn't need to hear that comparison and thinking about it was sickening enough. She didn't like parts of the person she'd become over the years and at times she couldn't even tell when she lost sight of who she was.

Was it when she died the first time? Was it when she lost her grandmother? Was it during Silas's manipulations? Had she ever recovered?

"And if you're telling me to use that feeling as some kind of party anthem motivator, don't bother. That isn't a particular emotion I like to revisit."

Again, he knew as much, and annoyance almost splashed overboard. Kai took a calming breath, keeping the smile intact as he looked at her. "It's not that you're like me – not much, given how different I am from what you're used to dealing with all your life. But there are some basic principles, mechanisms, if you like, that are alike in all living things. Stress, suppression of energy and emotions keep accumulating if one keeps holding them in, and at some point there comes explosion of great force. You know that by now, learned your lesson. And now you fear it will happen again, and instead of dealing with this problem in a new, more successful way, you keep doing the same – suppressing, locking it in, and it's a nuke ticking inside you, Bonnie. With powers like yours, like mine, it's really a nuke – I didn't use it for better picture. It is exactly that. You need to learn to let the tension out every now and then if you don't wanna hurt anyone or yourself. Having fun, laughing, letting go when you can, having sex, lighting fires in controlled surroundings could be a better way than sulking until your adrenaline rushes out of you like volcano erupting over Pompeii."

He made sense, too much so and something about that frightened her. It was warped taking advice—and letting it sink in—by someone who'd turned her life upside down and continued to do so.

He remembered her phrase and chortled, shook his head.

"And it's not me trying to psychoanalyze you. It's me telling you things I feel no one has told you before regarding your power management." He caught her eyes and held them, no smile or jokes this time. "I'm just trying to help."

Worst of all, she was starting to believe him, starting to read into the sincerity in his eyes.

"Why?" she asked before she could tapper down her curiosity, knowing it was something she'd asked before and that she sounded naïve repeating the question. Bonnie couldn't wrap her head around it. "It doesn't make sense. I manipulated you and trapped you in that prison world with a bunch of hungry vampires who gnawed on you as if you were human kibble. Why are you trying to help me? Why'd you spare me but kill Jo? You certainly don't owe it to me to play therapist or to even take it easy on me." And he was, to some degree, far easier than she was to herself.

Kai narrowed his eyes a little as if giving her questions a thought while observing her.

"You know why people cheat in games?" he asked out of the blue with a pensive squint of a man ready to dive into a philosophical debate. "It ensures you win in the end and don't lose anything in the process. It's cool to make sure you don't lose, but in the end of the day it makes the game pretty boring. There's no challenge in it, just a steady race for the finish line where you get no gratification. Some cheaters – many of them – don't realize that latter fact until they get there. I know it and I hate boredom. It not just demeans me to cheat, but also robs me of all the thrill. It's the thrill that makes life interesting. Worth living. If I don't throw you a tip here and there, it's a heavy cheating on my part, Bonsy."

He slipped off the bed, shook the jacket off, threw it on a chair, toed his boots off.

She should have expected that he'd talk circles around that answer. She eased onto the edge of the bed as he stood, watching—for a time—as he shrugged out of his jacket and shoes. She flopped onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, her hands crossed over her lower abdomen, idly toying with the material of her shirt. She wasn't sure she understood what he was trying to tell her. He hadn't confessed anything yet—not since the barn—hadn't answered what she asked and didn't appear to want to put her out of misery. He was like the epitome of a human version of sudoku, only there were no handy answers printed to the back of any books to help her with it.

"I call dibs on the shower and while I'm at it, you might wanna order a feast of a dinner because you deserve it, and I need you to eat well to favor my own nutrition." He gave her a shiny smile, tossed his shirt on the chair to the jacket.

She averted her gaze from the ceiling, meeting his eyes again at the reminder that he needed to feed again. She only hoped her resolve wouldn't betray her.

"Way ahead of you," she uttered as he headed into the bathroom. Her pizza would be here soon.

Twenty minutes passed before a knock sounded on the door.

"Hi," Bonnie greeted after she tentatively opened the door, happy to see that it wasn't the cops or someone else. The more time passed, the more paranoid she was becoming about how well they'd done to get away. She didn't underestimate Damon's talents of getting what he wanted and she had no way in which to contact Lucy without calling her mom, but then they'd have to go through the whole rigmarole of Bonnie being alive—and she wasn't sure she was ready for that. Bonnie quickly found the money, made the exchange—tip included—and made herself comfortable on the bed again, hungrily tucking in, eating away her concerns and what she knew was waiting for them around the corner. She wished she ordered dessert, too.

By the time Kai walked out of the steamy bathroom with nothing but a white towel around his hips, Bonnie was finishing the second half of her pizza, seemingly consumed by some show on TV.

"That smells delicious. Got a cocktail or two to wash it down?" he smiled brightly as she looked at him.

"Unfortunately not," she responded. She was starting to feel full, like she might burst, and yet she kept eating, like each bite aided in deadening the treacherous snags they'd hit today. "Want a piece?" she asked, picking up another slice, dangling it upon her open palm like a greasy carrot, her eyes inadvertently skimming his toned abdomen and the towel synched around his hips. Immediately her cheeks reddened, a tickly hot flush sweeping through her body in reminder of how close they'd been to release, how much her body still craved it.

She shoved the pizza into her mouth before he could take it or supply her with an answer, killing the thought before it could fully manifest itself, and turned back to regard to the flickering TV screen.

Kai could sense her arousal as if it were coming off her in thick waves, and then the faintest scent of it reached him. He began to get hard, and smiled a wry smile, strolling towards her slowly, like a predator eliminating the distance to its prey not to spook it.

"Oh yeah, I do want a piece of you."

She sensed him coming toward her, her eyes skittishly darting from the TV. She didn't have to guess to know that he'd picked up on her perverse but brief musing. Freaking vampires and their heightened everything!

Before she voiced a protest that was about to fall from her lips, judging by the flicker of knowing alarm in her eyes, he undid the zipper of her jeans with a thought, and dexterously pulled them off her legs.

She was still chewing when she found herself on her back, her zipper yawning all by itself and her jeans snagged against her shoes, the objection sitting upon her tongue buried beneath extra cheese and mushroom.

Her shoes fell at his feet under the heap of denim as his lips kissed her waistline before he pulled her panties down with his teeth.

She dropped the unfinished slice onto the open pizza box by the time there was a distinct chill overlapping her flushed skin, fresh hands skimming the top cover and then his shoulders to brace herself.

"This isn't a good idea," she remarked as blunted teeth brushed her hipbone, peeling the fabric away from her skin and gradually down her thighs.

She said that a lot, didn't she? As if it served some purpose or he'd listen to her. Bonnie wasn't even sure if she could convince herself anymore. She needed to try though. They'd been caught once today, chased down a highway, and there was a knot in her stomach that instinctively let her know they weren't out of the woods just yet. They were simply taking a breather.

She placed a hand on top of his head, tugging upon his hair to get him to stop before he could manage to remove her underwear. Once that barrier was removed, she knew there would be no going back or point in talking anymore. "I think we need to slow things down. And off…"

"I think you should spare your efforts, Banzai, and enjoy the ride," he suggested, looking up at her, wily and up to no good smile gleaming on his face before he ducked back, his lips skimming up her inner thigh.

She relaxed her hand and removed it from his hair, fingers skimming her stomach to soothe the butterflies raging beneath as he smiled. Kai was up to no good and not going to let her escape this time. She should make him stop, use magic and knock him out or something, and yet she couldn't bring herself to do it.

She was wet, despite her protests, and the scent made him rock hard beneath the towel he still had on. Hauling one of her legs on his left shoulder, he proceeded placing light kisses higher and higher until there was nowhere else to go but for the main course.

She stiffened and gasped as he hauled her leg onto his shoulder, the kisses he'd placed along the inside of her inner thigh settling any misapprehensions she might have had about being exposed to a hungry gaze. She peered up at the ceiling as a means to distract herself a moment, to give herself a second to catch her breath before he expertly stole it from her.

Trembling with lust and hunger interlacing, Kai closed his eyes and put his open mouth on her, shivering as she gasped when his tongue slid inside, gathering her juices as if it were water in the desert. His right hand dived under the towel and wrapped around his stony erection, rubbing in steady motions as he worked her up with his tongue.

"Oh God," Bonnie whispered, unable to control her gasp of anticipation as the warmth of his mouth locked on her pussy, her blunted teeth closing around her lower lip to stifle a moan in wake of his talented tongue. She rocked against him in search of friction and that mind-blowing end that had been stolen from them earlier, any and all reservations she'd had to stop—to think about this rationally—no longer an issue.

The sound of her gasp – and more so the meaning of that sound – stroked through his nerves in a pleasant comber, nearing his release as Kai worked himself up to the apex. His tongue explored her entrance, tentatively one moment and demandingly the next, eliciting shiver after shiver from her almost surrendering body. And she was indeed surrendering, eagerly now that she resigned herself to the fate of pleasure. It reminded him of something he read in a book once, but he didn't want to dwell on it just yet.

Ripples of carnal delectation climbed up steadily inside him, almost in sync with those of Bonnie. Kai was so in tune with her through his mouth, his lust, and her finally _genuine_ want, that he could sense orgasm coming as if there were two parallel lines, or it was twice as rich. It was strange, but intoxicatingly so. It made his head swim and he feared he could lose it.

Nevertheless, a small smile twitched his lips, almost involuntarily, as he was right at the top and ready to roll over it and ride the hell out of ecstasy. Before she was able to roll over hers, he detached from her hot wetness, turned his head and sunk his fangs in her inner thigh, with the same quick smooth move he'd executed on her every time before. He didn't think she realized at once what happened – her body was so distracted by nearing orgasm that she might as well take it for a bout of pleasure before any dull pain could seep through the built-up web of sexual sensations.

For Kai, it was an explosion of a tremendous force. Her tastes mixed in his mouth as her blood poured in, and it all went off in one searing, killer of an ecstasy. He was drunk at once and searing between worlds. All sounds gone, leaving their frantic heartbeats to dance on a drum inside his head, like palms of a black shaman high on his herbs. He thought he heard a groan he couldn't keep in – it vibrated against her flesh that brought him higher on that wave. Kai was reluctant to come down, and it felt like an eternity before he did.

He licked his lips, slowly straightening up, pulling his hand from under the towel and wiping it on the fluffy material. Her leg slid off his shoulder as he did.

She blinked up at Kai numbly, her leg dropping back down onto the mattress as if it were a deadweight.

"That was divine," he smiled with sheer excitement at her. "You're incredible, Bonster. You're another of the world wonders. I'm lucky no one else knows about you."

Her lower body thrummed in anticipation of release. She had been so close, on the verge of falling over into bliss when an unacquainted sensation swept through her, temporarily knocking her off kilter. Before she familiarized the passing discomfort, it was over and she was being dismissed.

He tipped her a wink and waved his head towards the bathroom. "Go ahead and treat yourself with a nice hot shower."

Bonnie pushed herself up onto her elbows, legs feeling like wet noodles, resisting the urge to cup her sex as she sat up. Less than two strokes and she'd be singing. Or at least she would have been, but that mood was officially over and dampened. She wasn't fond of being used – not like this. She wanted to say something, to rage, but what would be the point? She already voiced her opinion on what they were doing or she assumed he wanted. _And it wasn't positive._ Maybe this was a good thing?

Bonnie reached for the towel since he was still standing in front of her, looking smugger than she would have liked, and ripped it from his hips, her free hand sending him reeling back against the wall without any physical contact.

Kai emitted a laugh as his back collided with the wall and his towel was swept off him.

"Thoughtful," she commented in response to his suggestion to shower, wrapping the towel around her naked waist, unperturbed by the wet warmth that brushed against her knee. The evidence that one of them got off. She walked toward the bathroom without looking back, slamming the door shut behind her.

He slipped into bed and stretched, enjoying the hum of the recent pleasure still present in his body.

 _You'll come around, Banzai. We've only just started._

Bonnie braced herself against the back of the locked door, counting back from twenty, inhaling and exhaling in turn until the ridiculous rage lessened.

 _You've no right to be upset_ , she meditated, staring at her subdued reflection. _You showed him a hand, gave him power, what did you expect?_

"Stupid," she uttered, undoing the towel as she approached the recently used shower stall. She slipped inside, sliding the glass panel closed behind her, and played with the taps in search of a pleasing heat. She soaped herself up and washed her hair with what remained in the tiny bottles provided by the hotel. She left the conditioner in for two minutes and then reached up on her toes to twist the shower head toward the wall, relaxing against the tiles, enjoying the feel of the water beating down on her back.

Images from today played through her mind. Jurassic Park, how close they were to getting arrested, what they'd been caught doing on the highway and what they'd been doing less than ten minutes ago. The latter lingered, effortlessly reigniting that spark and need.

She removed a hand from the tiles, sliding her cool palm down her abdomen, and finished what he'd started, satisfied that the water would wash away the evidence of her weakness.

She emerged from the bathroom after twenty minutes, more focused and feeling a little restored. She strode over to her bag, removing a clean pair of underwear and a tee-shirt, pulling the first on under the towel. She removed the towel and pulled on the shirt, kicking it aside on the way toward the bed, pilfering one more slice of pizza as she climbed in.

Kai met her with a subtle wily smile on his face, as if he knew her dirty little secret.

"Say, when you decided you still wanted that orgasm, did you tell your hand that it might be not a good idea to claim it? Or, more importantly: did your hand believe you?"

She cringed, cheeks flushed, the slice of pizza dangling from between her lips. He'd been listening? She should have expected as much. What else did he have to do?

The glare she gave him indicated he hit the bull's eye right in the center. Kai grinned.

She broke off a piece of pizza and spoke around it. "Perv."

"No, just a vampire hearing. If you didn't wanna get caught, you coulda done without all that puffing and panting, you know."

She finished off her last piece of food, and sunk down under the covers, rolling onto her side to hug the pillow to the side of her face. She needed sleep. They both did.

He scooted closer, tickling her ear with his breath.

"Don't pout now, Bonsy. I merely demonstrated you the wrongness of your manner of behavior whenever it comes to anything relating sexual pleasure. You do need that release, whether you admit it or not. Better admit it, though, next time, since you can't lie to me about your desires, anymore."

He lay down and turned the TV off, killing the sole source of light in their room. Sleep would be good right now.

* * *

 **A/N a.k.a Bonnie's Ramblin':** **JustStockton (** I agree with you, especially in regards to s3 and that affair with Anna. I couldn't believe Jeremy was willing to throw his relationship away. How little he cared for someone willing to do so much for him. The continuation of their relationship, albeit supportive in some degrees, felt like a hollow filler thereafter. Not that I was much of a fan to begin with. So, _spoiler_ *gasp* there might be some limbs being ripped. #Not #Maybe As for the characterizations and being able to write Sabine/Celeste – flattery will get you everywhere!), **itscalledkarma** (I'm with you on that, but alas every _hero_ needs a villain. Haha.), **RoryFrankenstein** (Yes, I would say worry a little. Kai deserves the attention or a nursemaid. A sexy one. I'm thrilled that we're able to reignite some of your love for Steroline. Personally, I still love them myself. Then again, I haven't caught up with s7 yet. Three episodes in and we're still looking to tackle the rest. Lily is… well, Lily. She wants what she wants. Like Damon.), **tvd1992** (Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. We appreciate that. We're as glad that you're still enjoying it.)


	30. Chapter 30

**A/N a.k.a Bonnie's foreword:** **tvd1992** (Thank you so much for your continued commentary. Hope this chapter appeases your craving!), **Guest #1** (So happy you're enjoying our piece of heaven), **Guest #2** (We're review whores and unfortunately like to gush with our followers. As much as we love the follows/faves and wholeheartedly appreciate them, it's always nice to be able to exchange fan-squealing. We're greedy. Totally Kai's fault as he is rubbing off on me. *wink wink* I'll get on those corrections for future readers, thank you!), **RoryFrankenstein** (We literally watch and wait for your reviews. They're so encouraging and breathe new life into us. We would be lost without you. As for the characterizations and reflections. I agree the writers have had so much opportunity with which to try and amend their wrongs and instead of giving Bonnie the focus she deserves, they shave her down and give her voice to people around her. I can't stand it. I can't handle what they've done with her, how close we are to the finale and how little has been resolved. Although this week's reunion with her mother, just those couple of seconds where Abby refused to stand by and watch her destroy herself and set fire to Enzo's body. It went from my thinking she was a coward, to realising how much she truly loved her child, how much Bonnie has missed out on in that department and how much the writers buried for the sake of Elena/Damon/Bonenzo. I would kill for a good decent Bonnie PTSD storyline.), **Night250** (Killing Kai was and is one of their worst storylines, apart from the whole gross DE sire bond. Given the fact that they brought him back for the finale, I guess they realised that. Pity they brought him back as another DE plot device.), **jordanjanellejoy** (Bonnie is so damaged. She fears magic. It killed her twice – three times. The last of which she didn't suspect she'd be coming back at all. Oh, she had hope, determination in the prison world, but without it, all she would have had was a frustrated Damon and her own insanity. Now that the dust has settled, she's free and all the drama she tried to avoid has happened – she's taking a step back. She was never taught magic, so for her to ease back into that, to realise that she is strong, that all she needs is a decent teacher (who was stolen from her – eg Grams) is something that may come with time.), **JustStockton** (Your reviews are gold and we couldn't do without them, thus more than happy to return the favour and hopefully add a little sunshine to your day. Now that I've caught up with the series as a whole, I've finally come to understand Lily a bit more and appreciate her. She isn't all bad. Yes, she can be a bit offhanded on some topics and set in her ways, but as a whole – I believe she deserved more credit. I especially liked the taste of her relationship with Stefan. I would love to dive into that a bit for the sake of quenching my own thirst. Haha. Kai is chuffed that Pompeii analogy resonated with you because he put a lot of thought into it and just felt that it wrung true. You're definitely right about the storm – though, from my perspective and with where things are now – I doubt Bonnie will be allowed any calm for a while. Hehe.), **Guest #3** (Thank you!), **SalaD** (Welcome new reader! We're glad you've found us too), **Guest #4** (We adore you, for adoring it!), **Guest #5** (And here it is!), **avidreader70** (That's what we're trying to do! Well, sex is inevitable because we're horn dogs.), **tvd1992** (You, again? *Grins* It's here!), **BetterBiDesign** (We're not going to abandon this story, even if at times it appears that way, we've just been lagged and life got in the way a little—as it always does. We hope this next chapter aids you pre-bargain pleading. As for Kai and the sunlight, well, he does feel it to an extent but because he is part witch, we kind of figured that it negated the sunlight issue.), **Zayviah** (We couldn't be more flattered that you do that. We will try our best to update as regularly as possible!)

To those reviewers, I might have missed (which I hope I didn't), thank you so much for taking the time to hear our shameful plugging and to help us keep our story going. Your feedback is so very appreciated.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 30**

The engine purred cozily as the grey Yaris Sedan rolled further away from Bel Air, Maryland. Neither of its passengers spoke, each consumed by the thoughts of what they left behind. The waking before the set alarm, which could considered to be lucky, given the mess that followed; the rushed escape, the small showdown in their room when there was not enough time to slip away unnoticed, the cloaking spell as they drove away, leaving another "resisting arrest" and "police officers assault" behind.

Neither Bonnie, nor Kai wanted to discuss and debate whose fault it was that they didn't go to Monroeville instead of Bel Air, or that they needed to spend the night at a public place such as a not the least popular hotel. Or how they failed to escape before the police found their room and Bonnie threw a fit forbidding Kai to knock them out (or outright kill them as he rather would, she suspected) in order to destroy all evidence of them sleeping there by setting the beds on fire with both used towels on them. Kai would love to blame her for such an epic-fail-getaway for the mature criminals they became, but to himself, he was ready to admit it was the case of neither and both being at fault simultaneously. Force majeure.

"We can't be sure whether they know what car we're driving," Kai said, breaking the silence after almost three hours. "I took care of the parking lot cameras, but who knows who might have seen us when we rolled in last night. Anywho, it doesn't really matter. Changing the car is no big deal if it comes to it again. We need to decide where we head next." He stole a glance at her to see if what he sensed in his skin was true and she was still sulking. "I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter, sidekick Bons."

Bonnie glanced at her official partner in crime, head reeling—in spite of the hours that had passed since the incident—from the morning wake up and the physicality's she wished to volley on her _supposed_ best friend.

"We have no other choice but to stop running."

Kai turned to look at her, astonishment ghosting across his face.

Bonnie didn't spare him a glance, her face set in a scowl as she stared forward. Caroline and Stefan, she knew, were out there somewhere, desperately looking to help her in some way while Damon was hell-bent on making the difficult task of mutual redemption an impossibility.

 _He couldn't stand the idea of losing, no matter who got hurt in the process._

"To surrender. At least in part—and on our terms." That way she could figure out what Damon wanted from her, set Caroline's mind at ease and attempt to keep this charade from spiralling and someone else unintentionally getting hurt.

"How exactly do you imagine we do that? Should I remind you how bad the idea of locking me up is? You know what happens to people trying to trap or put me away."

Light pain bloomed behind her eyes, a headache that replicated a hangover and made her feel drowsy. She knew the task she undertook wouldn't be easy – but even this was beyond her imagination.

He licked his lips, observing the road while mulling it over quickly, then briefly shook his head. "Look, we get to a big city, and no one will ever find us. Hell, no one can find us if we don't want to, no matter _where_ we are! We can disappear in plain sight. So why worry?"

Why worry? Maybe because Kai had forced her to roast someone? Maybe because Damon intended to drive her crazy? Frankly, the idea of giving the ex-warlock turned vampire the nod to an even bigger playing field while he was being temperamental, detached and bloodthirsty was cringe worthy. They were on the same side now, working together to remain one step ahead, but how long until that alliance crumbled a second time and someone else paid for her mistake?

"No," Bonnie said in a decided murmur. "I don't want to run anymore. I don't—I don't want anyone else getting pulled into Damon's next scheme or him getting any more creative." And given his past recreation of torment – if inclined, she knew he could be quite the showman. "We need to face our demons." Or at least one of them.

Kai stared at her incredulously, wavering on the precipice of annoyance. "And what then? Once you face that demon, and oh, let's not forget his mommy who's gonna be very happy for you to do as she wants. What then? What's the plan? I give them their heretics and you lie down and die wherever Damon prefers?"

Why did he have to answer everything with a question upon another question? Why couldn't it be 'Okay, Bonnie. Let's do things your way, you've dealt with him longer and know him better'?

"He knows how I feel about releasing the heretics." Also Lily had tried to kill her once already and had almost succeeded. "Damon, for all his shit, in his roundabout way is trying to look out for me." Part of her believed he'd do as promised and ensure it never happened again. "All he wants … is to kill _you_." Kai knew that. "Clearly, distance isn't helping. Not if he's making up elaborate stories with the cops."

Kai caught himself letting on the kind of smile grown-ups would don when listening to a five-year-old explain aerodynamics. Bonnie still had no clue, whatsoever, or purely refused to get any. Her mind was stubbornly rigged in favor of Damon, whatever horrors he brought upon her and those she wanted to keep safe.

He shook his head slowly, returning his eyes to the road to drive around a car that had been slowing them down for a mile now.

"You think those stories he made up will win us a warm welcome whenever those cops find us? You betcha. Especially after I nuked their car and stole another, and we drove into the sunset leaving them out cold behind."

He placed himself into another lane, passing by another car.

"Tell me something: did he know how you felt about fetching his mom from nineteen-o-three? Did it make any difference in his decision and what you eventually did? Did he know how you felt about turning your mother into a bloodsucker? Did he step away and say, Sure, Bonbon, we gotta do it your way?"

Of course, he made many good points, some of which were more frustrating than the others. How did Kai know about her mother? Just how much had Damon and he talked in nineteen-o-four? She didn't care enough to ask, wrapped in what had happened and was currently still happening.

"Just drive," Bonnie instructed, snubbing his know-it-all expression and the indefinable agreement from her stomach. She rolled down her window, relaxed her head against the back of the chair and drew in deep meaningful breathes. It didn't take her long to distinguish that the nausea stemmed from hunger and anxiety. They'd been driven from their lodging before they managed breakfast.

Kai cast a gander at her, debating where she wanted him to drive. Wherever she meant, he knew where he wouldn't drive.

"How much fuel do we have?" Bonnie raised her head, tilting it slightly to get a look at the dashboard and complex panel. How far were they going to be able to make it before they were forced to stop?

Before Bonnie was forced to make a decision.

"Not too little, but we can benefit from more and getting some food into you, as well. Keep an eye out for a diner you'll want me to stop for."

Perhaps it would give him extra time and chance to talk some sense into her when she's not a starving, tired, grumpy witch. He didn't see himself giving in to human cops any time soon. She just needed to see the reason. And he needed a bucket of patience and then some to deliver it home for her.

"I don't think we should stop—" A diner didn't seem off the beaten path and with the cops out there, searching for them, who was to say where they would find them? "At least not anytime soon." Bonnie twisted in her seat, peering out the back window. There didn't appear to be any cars in the distance that she could see, nothing with red and blue looking headlights or even a siren. "Let's just drive until the car runs out of fuel and ditch it?" Paranoid that the cops might have seen them peeling out of the parking lot. What about the receptionist? He saw them roll in last night, why wouldn't he take account of their car?

He looked at her with the kind of smile one gives somebody who did something endearing.

"Don't crap your panties just yet, Bennett. We're fine. So far so good. Your food comes first now, so just please, watch out for a diner, will ya?"

Bonnie tore her gaze from the rearview mirror to dissect Kai. She'd come to the conclusion that she liked his smile and innate need to take control – to protect her. She wasn't quite sure what he got out of it just yet, why he let her take charge in some instances and kept her from falling on her face in others. She smiled back in spite of herself. Considering Kai had gotten her out of one other situation the day before with the fuzz, she should trust by now that he had a handle on this, too.

"My eyes are peeled," Bonnie announced, purposely twisting to face forward again, eyes glues on the road ahead and the passing scenery to her right.

Forty minutes passed before she spoke up again, directing him to a western-themed diner that shared a lot with a busy gas station. Good place, at least by her standard, to find another ride and melt into the crowd.

* * *

Two decaled police vehicles were parked outside the Springhill Suites Marriott. They had been there thirty minutes and counting. Two officers were holed away in B12 king suite collecting evidence and searching for clues, while the third took point in the reception area like a paid bouncer and the fourth spoke to the desk clerk and a handful of night owls that might have seen anything suspicious.

Enzo and Lily slid inside without being noticed – compliments of their superhuman speed.

Driven by scent Lily entered the hotel room, teeth clenched and hands curled into tight fists when she realised that her prey wasn't there. They'd been following every lead once they happened upon the disheartened group of the police officers assaulted by the young suspects earlier, going so far as to claim on of the vehicles—and a passenger—and listening to the scanners.

"I told you, love—they're gone."

The two officers appeared from the bathroom, spitballing back and forth, one holding a towel in a brown paper bag while the other jotted down a couple of notes about the print he'd found. They paused, dumbfounded by the presence of the two strangers and gauging whether or not they were a threat.

"This is an active crime scene, ma'am. You can't be in here."

As if acting as one, the first cop pawned off his evidence and stepped forward to usher them out.

Enzo reacted, flying across the room unseen in a frenzied blur, his right arm enclosing around the approaching human in an old wrestling inspired move, whirling him around like an ersatz lover before brutally sinking his teeth into his neck.

Lily did the same. But with less grace.

"Stop, Love," Enzo commanded in a gentle tone, speaking around his fangs and belying the monster he was. She didn't hear him, and without hesitation, he released his victim. The fading man dropped to his knees and went face first to the carpeting. Enzo wrenched the second officer from Lily's murderous grip, using the other hand to detain her as she fought to feed. She was so savage in her desperation she reminded him of a lioness.

"You don't want to kill them," he contended in as reasonable a tone as he could.

A furious shuffle of menacing veins beneath her eyes said otherwise. In a blink of an eye, he drove her toward the wall, slamming her back against it—loathing the fact that he'd hurt her—but immediately pleased as she began to calm down.

It appeared, the longer they took to find Bonnie Bennett and the answers needed to free Lily's heretics, the harder and harder it was getting to control Lily's impulses and bloodlust. He gripped her tighter.

"Enzo," she murmured breathlessly, whispering his name in that way that made his groin twitch and his heart sing.

He immediately lessened his hold on her shoulders, battling the distinctive need to mould his lips to hers. Women weren't opposed to his charms and yet – this woman's sense of refinement keep her from giving in for very many years.

"Sorry, Love," he countered, letting her go completely to busy himself with the dying men. He bit into his index finger and forced some blood into cop one's mouth, compelling him to remain quiet and to stay still before aiding cop two.

Lily was straightening up her clothes, wiping at her mouth and savouring the fresh blood in her mouth as she walked toward the evidence. She plucked the brown paper bag off the floor, wrenching it open, removing the towel inside to register the dried substance left behind. She wrinkled her nose with disgust.

"Who would have thought Bonnie Bennett the type," Enzo said, a smirk curled on his mouth. He didn't know much about her, but the time spent harassing her to find a way to bring him back from the dead all those many months ago had certainly given him a touching perspective into her mind.

"What?" Lily asked, blinking, trying to find the helpfulness in his commentary.

There was none.

He didn't explain the gist of his thinking and instead reached out to take the towel, returning it to the brown paper bag, registering, the deeper in he went, that there was a dim smell of sex in the air.

Especially on the sheets.

Walking toward the bed, he crouched and inhaled lightly, closing his eyes—imaging for a second what it would be like with Lily—once all this commotion was over and she was able to be her in-control self again.

Lily had not even an inkling of his desire and turned on one of the men at her feet, hoisting the helpless man off the floor by his throat. He made not a sound, gripping at her hand, surprised by her strength.

The fear was intoxicating.

"Where has Miss Bennett gone?"

The frightened man said nothing. She tightened her hand on his throat and hauled him up onto his toes.

"Where?"

Enzo appeared behind her, taking a hold of her wrist to forestall snapping the man's neck and feeling her stiffen as she took in the compromising position.

"He can't talk."

Lily let go of him immediately. Enzo—albeit reluctantly and hurt—gave her space. She nodded and stepped aside.

"Speak," Enzo demanded, turning his inner exasperation on the stranger.

"Who is Bennett?"

"That would be the female criminal you're after."

"They left."

Enzo resisted the urge to snap his neck, forcing a smile onto his lips.

"That's obvious, friend. Where did they go?"

"Best we can tell? East. They were here, and next – gone."

Lily tipped her head back and Enzo could see she was seconds away from ripping someone's head off.

"How long ago did they leave?"

Without looking at his watch or phone the stranger estimated and answered half an hour, maybe less.

"They could still be in the area," Lily said, smiling to herself and collecting the brown paper bag. Without removing the contents, she inhaled deeply, taking in the mixture of scents. The one was distinctive and discarded, another smelled like soap and two others were familiarised as those belonging to Kai and Bonnie. She'd been in their presence enough times to know.

She was out the door and headed toward the highway before Enzo even compelled the two men to forget that they'd found any evidence, told their follow-up was phoney and instructed to start on another lead.

* * *

"Did you tell her that I was coming?" Stefan asked, pulling up the drive, following the dirt road, no longer plagued by the wretchedness he thought he might feel upon entering the gravel drive.

It didn't hold good connotations for him and was the very spot Elena solidified every insecure thought he'd ever harboured about their relationship by telling him that she kissed Damon (without regret), it was also where he'd began to self-destruct amidst his attempts at destroying Klaus.

He was grateful those days of deep dark depressions were behind him.

He felt freer for it – happier.

"She knows."

"Does she?"

"No," Caroline answered, giving his thigh a reassuring squeeze. He swallowed, pushed the break and drew the car to a gradual stop. He hadn't gone inside on his first visit to the off-the-beaten-path farmhouse, sticking to the barn and eavesdropping.

At the time, he didn't want to make a scene and was hopeful someone would drop information about Mikael.

How wrong had he been then?

He pulled up the handbrake and turned off the ignition. Caroline got out before the engine cooled, practically running toward the stairs and slowed only as the door opened. They'd been waiting for her – watching.

"Jaime," she greeted automatically, surprised to see Abby's adopted son. His lips twitched into a small smile.

"Caroline."

Something passed between them, politeness that Stefan wished he could replicate, and twisted into weariness once the former teenager turned to acknowledge him. Jaime had grown up quite a bit over the last few years and had even packed on a bit of weight. Bulk Stefan could see was pure muscle.

"Is Abby here?" Caroline asked, barely giving Stefan time to string together an apology or awkward greeting.

"She is." Jaime took a step back, waving her ahead. "Caroline Forbes, I invite you in."

With everything that had happened after Klaus's attack, the many times their lives had been put at risk in the short period of time Bonnie's merry band of murderers had come into their lives, as a unit they seemed to have gone out of their way to protect themselves.

Caroline smiled her thanks and crossed the threshold. She didn't move from the entranceway—not far—waiting for the process to be repeated with Stefan. And it was, albeit reluctantly.

They remained close to one another as he entered the living room and took a seat on the couch as per Jaime's insistence. Abby joined them a minute later, dusting her hands free of dirt, her hair tied away from her face in a way that made her look younger, beautiful and showcased a lot of where Bonnie got her looks, traits like these you didn't notice at first glance.

Caroline automatically stood. As did Stefan.

"I contacted a friend in Philadelphia and sent over one of Bonnie's old sweaters. Have you heard from her?" She looked genuinely concerned about the state of her child's wellbeing.

"A day ago. We didn't speak very long."

"Why is she running?"

"After her death, the prison world—she kind of acquired a nemesis."

Caroline went on to explain, as only she could, about what had happened since Bonnie's return—how close Bonnie had come to dying again—and how she'd decided and made it her personal mission to try and save Kai.

Abby looked stricken, once again reminded of what a lousy parent she was and how she wished she could have been there for her daughter, to save her from herself and prevent these unspeakable horrors.

"So, why is Damon—" his name seemed to taste like venom on her tongue, "—why is he chasing her?"

"He says it's to protect her."

Neither woman believed that. Stefan wished there was a truth to it – he hoped.

"How long until we'll be given a location?"

Abby shrugged, looking forlorn as she dug dirt from under her nails, her eyes briefly meeting the youngest Salvatore's with a touch of resentment. If she hadn't been turned, she'd be able to do it herself.

"I've told her I need it done as soon as possible."

Unfortunately, the witch was a daytime broker and unable to drop everything and rush to her aid. That only happened in the movies, not in the real world where magic was hidden and accredited only in fantasy books.

"Thank you for doing this," Caroline said, registering the look of surprise and equal hurt on the woman's face.

"Of course. She's my daughter." Without giving it any thought, Caroline reached for her hand, taking a hold of it to give it a reassuring squeeze as if to let her know she was doing okay.

Stefan couldn't have loved her more.

"How are you doing, by the way?" Caroline asked. "How's the feeding?"

"Better," Abby supplied, removing her hand from Caroline's, fidgeting. Jaime stood, announcing he'd made everyone something to drink and headed off into the kitchen. "Jaime's on a daily diet of vervain."

Where had they even managed to find it? Klaus had the herb destroyed around Mystic Falls and as far as Stefan knew, there weren't too many other people who carried or harvested it anymore, aside from Alaric.

To distract themselves, Abby gestured for them to follow her, walking them outside around her garden where she appeared to be growing rows and rows of various herbs and flowers. Caroline and Abby were talking like old friends. The blonde doing the most, filling Abby in on every detail of Bonnie's life she'd missed thus far.

Abby's witch friend called two hours later, supplying them with directions and offering up more help, if needed.

* * *

They filled the tank, then Kai picked a spot on the sidelines of the lot and followed Bonnie out. The smell of fried junk food was reaching out here, and Kai heard her stomach respond faintly, and smiled.

"Care for some fried onion loops?" he asked, gesturing for her to proceed to the diner. "Something tells me they might not have pizza here. Or overly pricey desserts. Or you might wanna learn that leprechaun trick I showed you earlier."

He winked at her and held the door, then went inside after her. It was smellier here, but luckily not too smoky. However, to Kai's nose, it was ten times worse – as if people were smoking around him, exhaling in his face. The intensity of smells caught him off-guard a bit, and he felt he would get something akin to a headache if he lingered for long. People's voices buzzed into his ears, sending parts of conversations through his brain like needles through flesh. It stung and distracted him from his own thoughts, and he realised it wasn't that easy to switch off the effect. He wondered if it was going to be that crazy forever now. He didn't think he could manage walking among people if it was. Damon and other vampires seemed to have no problem, so it had to get better.

Slightly dizzy, he followed Bonnie to the counter, restraining his face from wincing as every other second filled his ears with more sounds and talks, and his nostrils started to itch from all the smells flooding from the open kitchen. Quite peckish himself, he felt faintly sick.

Bonnie scanned the sea of bodies seated in various locations across the room, nerves teetering on a high wire. The cops were after them, Damon was after them and in spite of the temporary confidence instilled by their escape, she felt overwhelmed.

What would happen once they caught up to them? Would she be able to stop things from escalating? Kai wouldn't go down without a fight and she had no sure way how to handle anything! This wasn't something she could teach herself or flip a coin to decide, this involved lives – one she'd already lost – and more in the making.

Frankly, she'd never been on this side of the law before. Not without someone there to help her. Sheriff Forbes, Matt, her father. She didn't like the feeling. She didn't like knowing that even if she hadn't played witness to the harm that couple endured, she had aided and gotten rid of another man, someone who'd been reduced to nothing in a bathtub and heavily sat on her conscience.

She deserved to be locked up.

Bonnie swallowed, forcing herself to relax and regarded Kai for a curious instant, taking in the mask of distaste that crossed his features. Could he read her thoughts?

"You okay?" she asked automatically, reaching for his hand, steering him to the table close to the restroom and out of the way of the windows and door. If the cops did come tumbling in, she didn't want to be the first or even second thing they see. The irony didn't sit well with her even as she approached the table, registering the shadows provided by the poor lighting and it's out of the way setting. It was as if the sunlight couldn't quite reach it.

Her hand steering him through the aisle for a remote table grounded him a little, provided a focus that was slipping away from him under the pressure of all the sensors going into overdrive.

Belatedly, he realised she asked a question.

"Yeah, I'm…" He sat and cast a quick glance around, then looked at her, forced a smile and shook his head. "I'm fine. Just… all this vampire thing with smells and sounds is like standing at an amplifier or a punk rock concert while your face is stuck in a beer-soaked biker's armpit. Not quite the live-fast-die-never life your buddy Damon is a mascot to."

He painted quite the verbal picture. Bonnie wrinkled her nose at the thought, looking down at the table in consideration. Guiltily she hadn't even pondered how his new senses must be affecting him – not in the same way she usually would have.

There wasn't time.

He seemed to be adapting fine and for the most part, even his hunger was under control. There was no outbreak, no battle, no bloodlust or attempt to talk him down from the ledge. It had all been calculated.

At least that's what she'd believed.

He turned in his seat glancing back at the bar, then threw Bonnie an apologizing shrug.

"I don't think it's the type of place they bring you the menu and wine card and ask to accept the chef's special appetizers while you wait. You had to order before we sat."

Her eyes flicked to his face again, softening slightly, pushing aside the internal battle.

"Probably not," she agreed, stealing a look around.

There were many tables, many unfamiliar faces and a three TV's situated around the room. The first above the bar pointing toward the booth at the entrance, another opposite them in the left corner and a third on the opposite side of the restaurant out of sight. All of them currently showed a baseball game and revolving updates on the weather and high priority news headlines.

"What would you like? A beer? Something to dull the senses?" She couldn't remember the last time he fed. "Something else?" Bonnie probed, refusing to say blood or vein and hopeful he could read the offer in her eyes.

Kai wrinkled his nose. "No beer, no nothing. Just get yourself some food, and we'll be on our way to a hopefully better place."

He scanned the hall until he caught the eye of a waitress – a tired woman in her late forties – and she started toward them with an expression of weary boredom on her face. She plopped the menus on the table in front of Bonnie, casting a glance between them.

"I'll come in five to get the order."

"Wait," Bonnie said, stopping the waitress before she could make her retreat and return to the kitchen.

She paused, hesitantly and slowly whirled around on the ball of her right foot to fix Bonnie with a look.

"I know what I want." Bonnie didn't want to waste time any unnecessary time. "I'll just take a mushroom and cheese burger with fries and a water. All to go." Bonnie extended the menu toward the waitress, reaching across the table to claim the one she'd given Kai and waited for her to take it.

"We don't have mushrooms. We need to make a trip into town."

"Do you have cheese?" Bonnie asked, leaning forward on her elbows as the woman took the menu, sliding Kai's on top.

She nodded.

"I'll take it." Bonnie avowed with a cheery smile, trying to broadcast positivity she didn't at all feel.

The woman turned toward the counter to hand in the order.

"Oh, um… how long will it take?"

She stopped, shoulders slightly tense and smiled. "Fifteen minutes, sugar."

Bonnie nodded, sat back and watched her proceed on her way, her eyes immediately shifting to the windows, to the cars parked in the lot outside. "Do you think it's a good idea to keep travelling by car?" she asked in a whisper, knowing his vampire hearing, if it was still faulty would pick up on her question.

Kai chuckled. "You got any other suggestions? Perhaps I need to sprout bat wings and carry you around like a dragon would a stolen princess? I'm sure your friends would love the headlines."

Taking into consideration the fact that he'd revived a fossilised set of bones, although he was joking, she couldn't quite bring herself to laugh.

"I was thinking something less attention-grabby, say, walking—" Bonnie interjected while he took his turn to examine their surroundings. She was trying to be relaxed, to play things down and hope for the best but ever since Damon unleashed the cops on them, things were spiralling, and fast.

His gaze froze on the flickering TV screen over the bar where the truckers and travellers at the counter were staring. It was CNN news, and it was proudly demonstrating the red-blue police blinkers and ambulance vans crowding the National Mall in Washington, DC. The sound was low, but Kai had no trouble hearing the report of panic and disturbances at the Museum. Some witnesses relayed their staggering stories of the T-Rex coming alive and inducing chaos in the place of pride and history of the United States.

Trying not to smile, Kai jerked his chin toward the bar for Bonnie to turn around and look. Right on time for the report about two criminals hunted by the police being seen in a restaurant not far from here where they paid with fake money and flashed their recognisable faces on camera in the hall. They said any possible connections between the assailants and the Mall Museum incident are currently being investigated. Then came the interview with one of the police officers that had tried to apprehend the suspects earlier and ended up knocked out and one police cruiser short. The said police cruiser had not been located, and the police suspect the modern Bonnie and Clyde were still travelling by it to throw off any suspicions on the road. The officer directed his tired eyes to the camera and pleaded the citizens to stay vigilant and report anything they might know about the case, for the suspects are extremely dangerous and possibly armed.

After the shots from the restaurant camera were displayed, Kai saw the barmen hold their waitress by the shoulder whispering something to her, and how she turned and looked at them with wary eyes.

Following his sign, Bonnie turned and spied the TV. The first thing she saw was an image from their time in the museum, clear as day and leaving little doubt to anyone who knew them or who'd come face to face with them of who that was. She watched the segment to its completion as if she were witnessing a burning wreck, her body humming with renewed life, her hands automatically falling to her side to make a grip for anything that was hers.

"It's time to go," Bonnie deliberated in a rush, already scrambling out the booth, refusing to wait around for the cops to show up again or for someone to sell them out.

Kai got up and followed her out without any resistance at all, though in the back of his mind, he regretted the meal she wasn't getting. But inside that diner made him sick, and he felt quite happy taking a fresher, cooler breath outside while keeping up with Bonnie's hasty pace. Worry coiled off her like smoke off censer.

He felt a little lightheaded – a reminder of how he didn't take a moment to drain the Bennett girl of a few swallows and how it didn't help to keep it together in smelly public places. Kai still smelled burnt onions dipped in cheap cigarettes smoke all over himself and was fighting back faint nausea. Bonnie's rapid heartbeat in his temples didn't help.

"We still need to get you some food," he remarked, reaching for the keys in his pocket as they approached the car.

"Let me take care of it."

Kai froze in place, keys dangling in his hand, and stared at Lily holding the witch girl to her by the throat. Her hand squeezed a little making Bonnie's eyes bulge and her lips distort in a soundless cry for help. Kai's heart skipped a beat or two before he sensed something behind him. He started to turn, but it was too late, and Enzo jabbed a vervain syringe into his neck. Kai's vision swam as if he were about to cry, Lily's bloating face was sneering; Bonnie's mouth was widening its O of terror. Her heart was galloping deafeningly in his temples. The ground wobbled beneath Kai's feet. Enzo's arms wrapped around him, relieving his hand of the keys, and dragged. The twilight turned into black tar and crept over the world, killing it.

Lily's hand felt like a living python wrapped around her throat. There was no sympathy in the vampire's eyes, no joy, and definitely no remorse, the look Bonnie was familiar with and had nearly cost her life before. This time was no different. She hauled Bonnie off her feet like you do an impish cat, threatening to snap her spine with flex of her slender fingers, providing the young witch with an unwitting view as Kai got his vervain shot. A gasp rushed forth from her mouth in alarm when he slumped down, and the pain that radiated up her back and rocketed into every corner of her body. Lily flashed a condescendingly triumphant smile and without warning rammed her head into the side of the cars door.

Blackness came immediately.

"Was that really necessary, Love?" Enzo asked, feeling a twinge of sympathy for the witch that had once saved him. They were by no means best friends or even allies, but he didn't have a particular wish to see her dead.

"No," Lily mused, her tone no longer possessed any of its usual regale politeness. She needed to feed and now.

"Let's load them in and grab a snack on the way, you look like you could do with another drink."

Lily said nothing, her eyes focused on the witches in turn. They had both betrayed her, both equally gone out of their way to ruin her life and that of her adopted children.

No more.

Enzo unlocked the doors the rest of the way, slid Kai into the backseat and buckled him up like a toddler. He didn't trust the kid, and although that syringe borrowed earlier from Jeremy's little mobile arsenal seemed big enough, he wanted a little warning before things erupted. Lily focused her full attention on Bonnie, reaching down to lift her off the ground, licking her lips as she did, picturing sinking her teeth into her neck.

"Climb into the backseat," Enzo suggested, taking the witch's unconscious body from her, practically prying her clothes from his sought for lover's lethal grip.

Lily did as he said with an insinuation of stiff hesitation, sliding into the back of the car. He closed the door for her in as gentlemanly a manner as he could muster, struggling with the passenger door before slipping Bonnie inside. He strapped her in, too. He looked around, grateful no one seemed to have taken in the commotion and moved around to the other side, removing the keys from the door and stuffing them into the ignition.

"Where to, Love?" he asked, already knowing the answer but wanting to keep her talking.

"Home," Lily murmured, almost sounding happy.


End file.
